Cover crops, allelopathy control, weeds

Rasmussen IA (2004) The effect of sowing date, stale seedbed, row width and mechanical control on weeds and yields of organic winter wheat. Weed Res 44 12-20 Reddy KC (2001) Effects of cereal and legume cover crop residues on weeds yield, and net return in soybean (Glycine max),. Weed Tech 15 660-668 Reynolds LB, Potter JW, Ball-Coelho BR (2000) Crop rotation with Tagetes sp. is an alternative to chemical fumigation for control of root-lesion nematodes. Agron J 92 957-966 Rice EL (1984) Allelopathy. Academic, New York, p 317... 

Providing weed suppression through the use of allelopathic cover crops is an important method of weed control in organic farming and it is one of the best possibilities of allelopathy application (Sullivan 2003a). Besides, growing of cover... 

Except direct use of allelopathic crops as cover crops, smother crops, and intercrops, applications of allelopathy for weed control include the use of allelopathic residues as an herbicide agent, e.g., pellets flours, water extracts, etc. The most common example of crop residue utilization is application of straw on the soil surface (mulching), e.g., rice straw inhibited germination of field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis L.), winter wild oat (Avena ludoviciana Durieu), and little-seed canarygrass (Phalaris minor Retz.) (Lee et al. 1991 Tamak et al. 1994 Young et al. 1989). 

Putnam AR, DeFrank J, Barnes JP (1983) Exploitation of allelopathy for weed control in annual and perennial cropping systems. J Chem Ecol 9 1001-1010 Putnam AR, Tang CS (1986) The science of allelopathy. WUey, New York, NY Qasem IR, Hill TA (1989) On difficulties with allelopathy methodology. Weed Res 29 345-347 Reader RJ (1991) Control of seedling emergence by ground cover a potential mechanism involving seed predation. Can J Bot 69 2084-2087... 

While allelopathy is not covered in this chapter, excellent weed control can be achieved at reduced herbicide rate when used in conjunction with allelopathic rice varieties. Therefore, selection of highly allelopathic crop varieties, either through traditional breeding or using genetic engineering techniques, may also provide novel and low input approaches to weed control. 

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