Post-emergence herbicides are cost effective for vineyard floor management on the Central Coast

Central Coast growers are under in- creasing scrutiny and regulatory pres- sure to manage herbicide use because of their farmland's proximity to the Monterey Bay and National Marine Sanctuary. Vineyard floor manage- ment practices typically consist of a combination of weed control strate- gies, including herbicide use and cover crops. We evaluated nine combina- tions of vineyard floor management practices for their impacts on fruit yield, quality and costs. We found that compared to the grower stan- dard, post-emergence herbicide treatments generally used smaller amounts of chemicals and were less costly, with similar yields and quality.