Mechanical-chemical synergy has been proven efficient in weed control. However, characterizing the state of weed–soil complex after mechanical weeding and revealing its effects on subsequent herbicide application is still challenging, which restricts implementation this technology. This paper first presents a method to characterize from perspectives fragmentation composite characteristics. The ...

The objective of this research is the replacement of hand weeding in organic farming by a device working autonomously at field level. The autonomous weeding robot was designed using a structured design approach, giving a good overview of the total design. A vehicle was developed with a diesel engine, hydraulic transmission, four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering. The available power and the s...

Field experiments were conducted during the 2010 and 2011 cropping seasons to investigate the effect of farmyard manure and weeding regimes on the growth and yield of okra. The study was a factorial experiment laid out in split plot design, replicated three times. Farm yard manure was assigned as main plot treatments, while weeding regimes was assigned as sub plot treatments. Parameters measure...

We studied the effects of hand weeding of second-year plants of the biennial garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) on first-year plants (seedlings) and native ground layer vegetation. Garlic mustard is a Eurasian species that has invaded deciduous forest ground layers in eastern North America. Treatments consisted of a control and an early or late weeding of second-year garlic mustard. The early ...

This work presents advances in predictive modeling of weed growth, as well an improved planning index to be used conjunction with these techniques, for the purpose improving performance coordinated weeding algorithms being developed industrial agriculture. We demonstrate that evolving Gaussian process (E-GP) method applied measurements from agents can predict evolution field within realistic si...

Winter flooding of paddy rice production is characterized by fields during the winter fallow season. It has attracted attention in terms its ecological function, supporting biodiversity field ecosystems. Therefore, recent Japan been conducted organic farming. However, it not well documented how farming with affect productivity rice. We experiments to examine changes yield compared those convent...

To assess the effect of non chemical management of weed control on forage Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) a field study was conducted in Varamin, Iran during 2010 crop year in a three- replicated- split factorial experiment laid out in randomized complete block design with four weeding levels (W1= one time cultivation at 3-leaf stage using a duck foot cultivator, W2<...

Abstract Oil palm is the most productive oil crop, but its high productivity associated with conventional management (that is, fertilization rates and herbicide application), causing deleterious environmental impacts. Using a 2 factorial experiment, we assessed effects of vs reduced (equal to nutrients removed by fruit harvest) mechanical weeding on ecosystem functions, biodiversity profitabili...

A literature study was undertaken on the weeding of maize on smallholder farms in Ciskei, South Africa. Most weeding under these conditions is carried out by hand pulling or hand hoeing. Only limited use is made of animal traction, and large-scale development of this method will not be possible until the conventional broadcast method of planting maize has been replaced by row planting.

BACKGROUND The prevalence of different biotic processes (limiting similarity, weaker competitor exclusion) and historical contingency due to priority effects are in the focus of ongoing discussions about community assembly and non-random functional trait distributions. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We experimentally manipulated assembly history in a grassland biodiversity experiment (Jena Ex...