Integrated Weed Control: Row Crop Cultivation Vs. Cover Crop.

Peter Bergkamp

Research Poster Abstract

Pigweed is one of the most, if not the most prominent weed in Kansas and it poses a major threat to crop production. Kansas has the most reported herbicide resistant pig weeds across the United States. This is an alarming fact and is a problem that needed to be solved yesterday. It is impossible to control 100% of pigweeds by just using herbicide applications. Cover crops are a relatively knew but rapidly growing practice in Kansas. They have positive effects on soil health and help control weeds. However, cover crops also use up moisture in the process and this is an issue for the semiarid region of Kansas. This research will indicate the effectiveness of a cover crop but more importantly show another solution for weed control, row crop cultivation. This research will prove the effectiveness of row crop cultivation and how that could improve weed control in soybeans and grain sorghum while essentially facilitating the same purpose of a cover crop. There will be three different sets of row spacing for this experiment, thirty inches, fifteen inches, and seven and a half inches. There will be cover crops in each set of row spacing and there will be row crop cultivation in each set of row spacing as well. This will directly show that row crop cultivation can maintain the same amount of weed control as a cover crop without using up the soil moisture. This research could improve the methods of weed control and crop production in Kansas.