Integrated control of annual weeds by inter-row hoeing and intra-row herbicide treatment in spring oilseed rape

The aim of this project is to develop an integrated weed control strategy against annual weeds in spring oilseed rape by means of a combined mechanical and chemical weed control which will be performed concurrently and separately. The project encompasses field experiments in which different combinations of inter-row hoeing and intra-row herbicide treatments will be evaluated and compared to conventional weed control treatments with broadcast spraying of herbicides, and experiments in which an implement for concurrent inter-row hoeing and intra-row herbicide treatment will be refined and evaluated. In 2012, an implement for intra-row spraying combined with row hoeing was developed and evaluated in two field experiments in spring oilseed rape in the southern part of Sweden. The effects of inter-row hoeing, intra row spraying, and combination of the two methods were compared with conventional broadcast spraying. Preliminary results showed that the best weed control effects were obtained with the combination of inter-row hoeing and intra-row spraying in both experiments. Regarding crop yield, the yield was significantly higher in the combined treatment in one of the experiments while no effects on the yields were obtained in the other experiment. We envisage that the inter-row hoeing and intra-row herbicide treatment will diminish the overall use of herbicides to less than one third in comparison with the more conventional chemical weed control methods, while having the same weed control effect