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  • From: Marcie Rosenzweig <fullcircle AT jps.net>
  • To: market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: New: Principles of Sustainable Weed Management for Croplands
  • Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 07:05:15 -0800


I'm cross-posting this because ATTRA is such a great resource. I urge
y'all to check out not only this publication, but the entire site.

Marcie

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>From: "Steve Diver" <steved AT ncatark.uark.edu>
>To: sanet-mg AT ces.ncsu.edu
>Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 16:52:54 -0600
>Subject: New: Principles of Sustainable Weed Management for Croplands
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>
>Announcing this new web item from ATTRA.
>
>Principles of Sustainable Weed Management for Croplands
>http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/weed.html
>
>Abstract:
>
>Weeds are invited guests into agricultural fields as the result of
>management decisions and defying nature's principles. Managing
>croplands in tune with nature's principles makes for fewer and less
>costly weed problems. Strategies which utilize allelopathy,
>intercropping, crop rotations reduce weeds considerably. A weed-free
>design is discussed. A number of other weed control strategies are
>discussed. Additional resources are listed at the end of the
>publication.
>
>The author is Preston Sullivan, agronomy specialist.
>
>As a sampler, I have copied one section below titled "The Root Causes
>of Weeds"
>
>The Root Cause of Weeds
>
> Have you ever noticed when a piece of land is left fallow
> that it is soon covered over by annual weeds? If the field
> is left undisturbed for a second year, briars and young
> trees start to grow. As the fallow period continues, the
> weed community shifts increasingly toward perennial
> vegetation. By the fifth year, the fallowed field will host
> large numbers of young trees in a forest region, or
> perennial grasses in a prairie region. This natural
> progression of different plant and animal species over time
> is a cycle known as succession. This weed invasion, in all
> its stages, can be viewed as nature's means of restoring
> stability by protecting bare soils and increasing
> biodiversity.
>
> Weeds are evidence of nature struggling to bring about
> natural succession. When we clear native vegetation and
> establish annual crops, we defy ecological succession. Man
> is, in effect, holding back natural plant succession, at
> great cost in weed control. To better understand this
> process, think of succession as a coil spring. Managing
> cropland as an annual monoculture compresses the spring -
> leaving it straining to release its energy as a groundcover
> of weeds. In contrast, a biodiverse perennial grassland or
> forest is like the coil spring in its uncompressed condition
> - a state of relative stability with little energy for
> drastic change (Figure 1) (2). Generally speaking,
> biodiversity leads to more stability for the ecosystem as a
> whole.
>
>Monoculture
>(Unstable Simple Community)
>
>Biodiversity
>(Stable Complex Community)
>
>Figure 1. Monoculture vs. Biodiversity
>
> Modern crop agriculture is typified by large acreages of a
> single plant type, accompanied by a high percentage of bare
> ground - the ideal environment for annual weeds to prosper
> in the first stage of succession. Holding succession at bay
> with such unstable ecosystems can only be managed with high
> levels of inputs such as cultivation, mowing, herbicides and
> fertilizers.
>
> Having a high diversity of plants and animals increases the
> stability of the whole system because harm to any one
> species is less likely under diverse conditions than with
> less diverse environments. For example, an insect outbreak
> could wipe out a pure stand of crop because the insects can
> easily move from one plant to the next and breed rapidly.
> The insects can find their food easily and have few
> predators or parasites to hamper them. The same insect
> invasion occurring in a mixture of many plant types would be
> less severe on any one type of plant because the insects
> would have a harder time finding their preferred food. The
> insects would be undernourished, have more difficulty
> finding a mate, and have lower reproductive rates. The end
> result is that the impact of an insect outbreak is much less
> severe on the whole ecosystem where high biodiversity
> prevails. Stability through biodiversity is one of nature's
> fundamental rules.
>===========================================
>
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Marcie A. Rosenzweig
Full Circle Organic Farm
Auburn, CA





  • New: Principles of Sustainable Weed Management for Croplands, Marcie Rosenzweig, 02/02/2000

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