Physical weed control in organic carrot in Sicily (Italy)

Weeds are the major biotic factor that negatively affects organic carrot yield. As a matter of fact, weeds can reduce carrot growth from early stages to harvest because of the low competitive attitude of this vegetable. Innovative and conventional crop and weed managements were compared in an experiment carried out on farm in the Catania Plain (Sicily, Italy) in 2005-2006. Innovative planting pattern, operative machines (rolling harrow, flaming machine, precision hoe) and crop management increased carrot yield up to 8%, and also increased first category carrot yield and density, thus increasing production quality. Precision hoeing resulted in intra-row weed biomass decrease ranging between 55 to 97%, and in a total working time reduction up to 74%. Furthermore, the innovative crop and weed management systems reduced the costs for hand weeding and increased gross income