Weed infestation of maize grown in sustainable farming systems

Abstract

The main aim of the study was to evaluate the occurrence and development of weed species in maize grown in sustainable farming systems. The work deals with the impact of climate variables (temperature and precipitation) on the actual weed infestation of maize in the period of 2012–2014; the dynamics of occurrence of individual weed species in ecological and integrated farming systems; the effect of fertilizers and year of growing on incidence of weed species in maize. The specific conclusions and recommendations for the implementation of integrated and ecological farming system in practice were drawn from the results. The dynamics of occurrence of individual weed species of maize was different in ecological and integrated farming systems. The most important weed species for maize crop were: Amaranthus retroflexus, Chenopodium album, Persicaria lapathifolia, Echinochloa crus galli and Cirsium arvense. There was significant difference between fertilizers and no fertilizers variants in integrated farming system during spring. Manure did not affect actual weed infestation in ecological farming system. Effectiveness of herbicides in integrated farming system and effectiveness of inter-row weeding in ecological farming system were analyzed in this study. In applying prevention, direct and indirect measures of weed regulation are environmentally friendly and fully integrated viable in the cultivation of maize.

Keywords: weed infestation, maize, organic farming system