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Horizontal movement of seeds following tine and plough cultivation: implicationsfor spatial dynamics of weed infestations
Author(s) -
REW L. J.,
CUSSANS G. W.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
weed research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.693
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1365-3180
pISSN - 0043-1737
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-3180.1997.d01-39.x
Subject(s) - tine , weed , agronomy , harrow , plough , hordeum vulgare , biology , germination , brassica , white mustard , weed control , horticulture , poaceae , structural engineering , engineering
Summary Horizontal movement of seeds by different cultivators was investigated in three experiments. Seeds of barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.), field bean ( Vicia faba L.) and oilseed rape ( Brassica napus L.) were positioned on the soil surface or buried 0.1 m deep prior to cultivation, Seed movement was assessed by counting germinated seedlings. The type of tine implement used significantly affected mean seed movement, with surface‐sown seeds being moved significantly further than buried seeds. Primary cultivation with flexi‐ or spring‐tine machines moved seeds further than straight‐tine or power harrow implements. However, there was no overall difference between plough and flexi‐tine mean seed movement. A single pass with a tine attached to a seed drili moved seeds less than the two passes with tine plus seed drill, but the first pass had the greatest effect. Small oilseed rape seeds moved significantly further than larger barley or field bean seeds. More than 84% of seeds moved ≤ 1m from the source: no seeds were observed>4.8m in a forward direction or >0.2m backwards from the source, In a fourth experiment, plots containing seeds of Sinapis arvensis L. were cultivated in alternate directions in successive years, The results broadly validated the findings of the previous experiments Quantifying the horizontal movement of weed seeds is important to the understanding of the spatial dynamics of weed patches and thus in the prediction of future weed distributions.