Tolerance to weed harrowing in spring barley genotypes

Summary

Controlling weeds in spring cereals grown under organic conditions is mostly done by post emergence weed harrowing, where spring tines of the weed harrow control weeds by uprooting and/or covering small weeds plants with soil. In situations with relatively large weed plants and relatively small crop plants, there are increased risks for crop damages by soil coverage or other mechanical damages of the crop leaves. These damages are increasing with increasing weed control intensity, and are resulting in reduced crop growth immediately after weed harrowing. There are risks that the reduced growth reduces final crop yield too. However, there is some evidence that there are varietal differences in the tolerance to weed harrowing.
The aim of this study was to estimate the damages by weed harrowing in four pure genotypes and three two- or one three-component mixtures of spring barley, and to analyze if there were differences in tolerance to weed harrowing between the genotypes and mixtures.
Results from a two-year field study showed that there were varietal differences in the tolerance to mechanical weed control in the immediate effect as well as the short term effect, however there were marked differences in the immediate and short term effect between the two years. Regarding the long term effect of weed harrowing on yield, there were no significant differences in 2003 but in 2004, Brazil and the three component mixture suffered significantly from weed harrowing while Modena, Otira and Modena+Orthega mixture, seems to benefit from weed harrowing. The reason for these differences is probably due to differences in growth habit at the time for weed harrowing.