
Click image for caption and other photo
information. Read the
magazine
story to find out more. Making Cents
Out of Weed Seed BanksBy David
Elstein August 19, 2003Weed seed "banks"--spots
where many weed seeds lie dormant in the soil, creating a major nuisance for
large farms as well as backyard gardens--are expensive to deal with. But
Agricultural Research Service plant
physiologists are working on inexpensive, environmentally friendly ways to
control the banks to prevent future weed problems. At the ARS Water Management Research
Laboratory in Fort Collins, Colo., Lori J. Wiles and Dale L. Shaner are
studying ways to reduce how much herbicide is needed to kill the weed seeds.
Shaner is looking at the relationship between electrical conductivity (EC)
of the soil and herbicide binding. By knowing the EC of the soil, he hopes to
be able to adjust the level of herbicide used, so farmers don't have to apply
more than is necessary. Wiles is trying to find ways to map the seed bank in a field, so farmers
will be able to apply chemicals only where needed, saving money and helping
protect the environment. Because it's expensive to get large numbers of soil
samples to produce an accurate map, Wiles is working on ways to reduce this
cost. One plus is that the spatial distributions of weed seed banks are
relatively stable, so farmers may only have to create a map every few years. Also, Wiles has developed a software program, called WEEDSITE, to help
growers investigate the value of site-specific management of weed seed banks in
their corn fields. Read more about this research in Fort Collins, and about ARS scientists in
Fargo, N.D., working with the weeds wild oat and leafy spurge, in the
August issue ofAgricultural Research magazine. ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency. U.S. Department of Agriculture |