BACKGROUND Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are known for their beneficial effects on plants. However, there is increasing evidence that some ruderal plants, including several agricultural weeds, respond negatively to AMF colonization. Here, we investigated the effect of AMF on the growth of individual weed species and on weed-crop interactions. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS First, under c...

Weed competition is a significant problem in maize (Zea mays, L.) production in Sub-Saharan Africa. Better understanding of weed management and costs in maize intercropped with beans (Phaseolus vulgaris, L.) during transition to conservation agricultural systems is needed. Changes in weed population and maize growth were assessed for a period of three years at Bungoma where crops are grown twic...

Soybean field experiments were performed to investigate the weed-suppressing effects of different tillage systems and cover crop mulches at two locations in southwest Germany during 2014 and 2015. The influence of three different tillage systems on weed control efficacy, soybean plant density, and crop yield was determined. In the no-till system (NT), two different cover crops, (rye and barley)...

Experiments comparing conventional and organic systems often report similar yields despite substantially higher weed abundance in the organic systems. A potential explanation for this observation is that weed– crop competition relationships differ between the two types of systems. We analysed weed and crop yield data from the Rodale Institute Farming Systems Trial (FST), which provides a unique...

In the context of site-specific weed management by vision systems, an efficient image processing for a crop/weed discrimination is required in order to quantify the Weed Infestation Rate (WIR) in an image. This paper presents a modeling of crop field in presence of different Weed Infestation Rates and a set of simulated agronomic images is used to test and validate the effectiveness of a crop/w...

AUTOMATED precision weed spot spraying in the sugarcane industry has potential to increase production while reducing herbicide usage. However, commercially-available technologies based on sensing of weed optical properties are typically restricted to detecting weeds on a soil background (i.e. detection of green on brown) and are not suited to detecting weeds among a growing crop. Machine vision...

The differential weed-competitive abilities of eight rice genotypes and the traits that may confer such attributes were investigated under partial weedy and weed-free conditions in naturally occurring weed flora in dry direct-seeded rice during the rainy seasons of 2011 and 2012 at Ludhiana, Punjab, India. The results showed genotypic differences in competitiveness against weeds. In weed-free p...

Agricultural practices are key for understanding socio-economic change, community organization, and relationships with landscape the environment. Under Roman Empire, cereals were vital supplying urban military populations, yet cereal husbandry within villa landscapes remain underexplored. In this article, author applies new methods to analyse a large assemblage of charred plant remains from an ...