DESIGN AND FIELD TESTING OF A COMBINED FLAMING AND CULTIVATION IMPLEMENT FOR EFFECTIVE WEED CONTROL

Flaming is a thermal weed control method that uses heat to control weeds within or between crop rows. Mechanical cultivation is another weed control method which undercuts weeds between crop rows, while leaving a strip of weeds within the crop row. A combination flamer/cultivator implement was designed to take advantage of the good qualities of both flaming and cultivation methods to provide a more consistent weed control than using either flaming or mechanical cultivation alone. Flaming hoods were designed in the spring of 2010 and retrofitted on an existing row crop cultivator. The flaming hoods were redesigned in the spring of 2011 for easier manufacturing. They were tested in field studies in corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] during the summers of 2010 and 2011. Of the seven treatments tested, a treatment of flaming combined with cultivation applied twice during a season produced the highest weed control and crop yield, while maintaining low crop injury and weed dry matter