Title: Winter annual weed suppression in rye-vetch cover crop mixtures
Abstract: Winter annual weeds can interfere directly with crops and serve as alternative hosts for important pests, particularly in reduced tillage systems. Field experiments were conducted on loamy sand soils at two sites in Holt, Michigan between 2008 and 2011 to evaluate the relative effects of cereal rye, hairy vetch, and rye-vetch mixture cover crops on the biomass and density of winter annual weed communities. All cover crop treatments significantly reduced total weed biomass compared to a no cover crop control, with suppression ranging from 71-91 percent for vetch, to 95-98 percent for rye. In all trials, the density of non-mustard family broadleaf weeds was either not suppressed or suppressed equally by all cover crop treatments. In contrast, the density of mustard family weed species was suppressed more by rye and rye-vetch mixtures than by vetch. Cover crops were more consistently suppressive of weed dry weight per plant than of weed density, with rye-containing cover crops generally more suppressive than vetch. Overall, rye was most effective at suppressing winter annual weeds; however, rye-vetch mixtures can match the level of control achieved by rye, in addition to providing a potential source of fixed nitrogen for subsequent cash crops. [Zachary Dyer Hayden, Daniel C. Brainard, Ben Henshaw, and Mathieu Ngouajio (2012). Winter annual weed suppression in rye-vetch cover crop mixtures. Weed Technology, online 22 July 2012. doi: dx.doi.org/10.1614/WT-D-12-00084.1] ${imageDescription} Comment
Keywords: Cereal, grass, legume, cereal-legume, biculture, biomass, density