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Weed control is a type of pest control, which attempts to stop or reduce growth of weeds, especially noxious weeds, with the aim of reducing their competition with desired flora and fauna including domesticated plants and livestock, and in natural settings preventing non native species competing with native species.
Dig or pull weeds by hand. You can weed at any time of the year, but the best time to pull weeds is after it has rained, when the soil is moist and loose. Use a pre-emergent and post-emergent product.
Mechanical methods of weed control involve physically cutting, uprooting, or otherwise destroying weeds. On small farms, hand weeding is the dominant means of weed control, but as larger farms dominate agriculture, this method becomes less feasible. [6] On many operations, however, some hand-weeding may be an unavoidable component of weed ...
Living mulches grow for a long time with the main crops, whereas cover crops are incorporated into the soil or killed with herbicides. Other benefits of mulches are slowing the growth of weeds, and protecting soil from water and wind erosion. Some living mulches were found to increase populations of the natural enemies of crop pests. [1]
Chemical control poses risks to other plants, soil chemistry and biology, water quality, and animals; it should only be utilized if manual control is insufficiently effective. Pre-emergent chemicals can be most effective in combination with manual control; it prevents the annual seeds of T. terrestris from sprouting to make new plants.
Mechanical control including tillage and flooding were also used to control weeds. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, inorganic chemicals such as sulfuric acid, arsenic, copper salts, kerosene and sodium chlorate were used to control weeds, but these chemicals were either toxic, flammable or corrosive and were expensive and ineffective ...
The planting patterns, which consisted of either traditional rows or grid patterns, did not seem to have a significant impact on the cover crop's production or on the weed production in either cover crop. The ARS scientists concluded that increased seeding rates could be an effective method of weed control. [38]
Weed control in the Western world and other developed areas of the world is done by sophisticated machines and by substituting chemical energy (herbicides) for mechanical and human energy. There is a relationship between the way farmers control weeds and the ability of a nation to feed its people.