Date of Award
2020
Publisher
North Dakota State University
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Awarded
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Plant Sciences
College
Agriculture, Food Systems and Natural Resources
Faculty Advisor
Gramig, Greta
Description
Vegetable producers may benefit from integrating living mulches into their operations to manage weeds and improve soil quality. Living mulches, however, can reduce vegetable yield through competition. Here we investigate strip tilling into living mulches and then direct seeding a vegetable crop in the strip till zone as a production practice to limit competition. We further investigate the use of two surface-applied mulches, a newsprint hydromulch and a compost blanket, for weed control within the strip till zone. In field conditions, living mulches reduced vegetable yield by 49-84% and the use of the newsprint hydromulch and compost blanket reduced weed biomass by 84% and 85% respectively. In greenhouse conditions, a 50% reduction in the hydromulch application rate used in the field experiment achieved similar weed control, suggesting an application rate of 6.4 L m-2 or a mulch strength of 0.6 MPa may be sufficient for weed control with a hydromulch.
Recommended Citation
Puka-Beals, Jesse Jor-El, "Combining Cover Crops, Strip Tillage, and Novel Mulches to Manage Weeds in Vegetable Cropping Systems" (2020). Plant Sciences. 73.
https://digitalcommons.ndsu.edu/plant-sci/73
Rights
NDSU policy 190.6.2
Rights Link
https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf
Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0003-1829-5954
Handle Identifier
https://hdl.handle.net/10365/31806