Back
How to assess weed competitiveness in organic cultivar trials with wheat?
Problem
In many EU countries, weed competitiveness is not part of official variety testing protocols. Organic farmers that
forego herbicides and conventional farmers that wish to reduce spraying, face the problem of identifying wheat
cultivars that are suitable for their management conditions.
Solution
Farmers can set up on-farm trials to test different wheat cultivars. The farmer can use the cultivar which he usually cultivates as a reference variety. Next to the field, 2 to 3 cultivars are sown in strips and compared to the reference. The same management practices are performed uniformly to the trial fields. Visual assessment of a combination of different plant physiological properties can be used for
evaluating the cultivar’s weed competitiveness. Ideally, the trial is repeated over several seasons. Networking and discussion groups among farmers to share experiences can help to give a good overview over a broad range of potential cultivars.
Description
Liveseed Practice Abstract
Target Audience: farmers, researchers