Two watermelon pest management practices, a squash trap crop and a standard recommendation using soil-applied carbofuran, were compared using large-scale field plots to assess trap crop suitability as a replacement for the standard in 2000, 2001, and 2002. In both systems, foliar insecticide applications were used to control squash bugs when populations exceeded threshold levels. During 2001 an...

The ability to manage weed infestations in a spatially precise manner will rely on the availability of efficient methods of mapping weed distributions. We have conducted a study designed to compare four different ground based methods for collecting georeferenced information on sterile wild oat infestation in a winter barley crop. Sampling was done at harvest time (when wild oat panicles are mos...

To help farmers in the mid hills of Nepal improve their crop management and rice yields, we conducted a study testing different nursery management options and their effect on grain yield and yield components under rainfed conditions. The experiment was conducted in a farmer’s field during the cropping season 2009 and 2010 at Sundarbazar, Lamjung, Nepal, using a 3-factor factorial RCB design wit...

Harrowing is often used to reduce weed competition, generally using a constant intensity across a whole field. The efficacy of weed harrowing in wheat and barley can be optimized, if site-specific conditions of soil, weed infestation and crop growth stage are taken into account. This study aimed to develop and test an algorithm to automatically adjust the harrowing intensity by varying the tine...

Weeds are a major obstacle to successful crop production in organic farming. Producers may be able to reduce inputs for weed management by designing rotations to disrupt population dynamics of weeds. Population-based management in conventional farming has reduced herbicide use by 50% because weed density declines in cropland across time. In this paper, we suggest a 9-year rotation comprised of ...

We reviewed the timing of peak rate emergence for 15 problematic weed species as well ways to use this knowledge improve control. Much previous literature modeled based on growing-degree-days. For these models, we input average temperature data from several zones Northeast USA. Within species, model-predicted in warmest and coolest differed by an 39 days. Also within there was some variation be...

Shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) is a fire dependent species that is declining across the southeastern US. Its unique basal crook is an adaptation that protects dormant buds from fire and facilitates prolific sprouting of seedling rootstocks following top-kill. Understanding what influences shortleaf pine sprouting after fire could greatly increase success of natural regeneration efforts. We exa...