As the financial toll of weeds continues to burn a costly hole in the pockets of Australian vegetable growers each year, the need for effective management strategies is ever-increasing.
Now, the fruits of a five-year collaboration between the University of New England (UNE) and Hort Innovation should help to ease this strain, with researchers creating the first ever comprehensive guide to integrated weed management for the Australian vegetable industry.
“Nationally, weeds are a significant ongoing burden in vegetable production, having considerable impacts on crop profitability by reducing yield and quality, increasing input, machinery and labour costs, and making crop management more difficult,” says lead researcher, Associate Professor Paul Kristiansen.
“The manual we’ve created, Integrated weed management for the Australian vegetable industry, will help vegetable growers to understand current best practice and the importance of remaining diligent and strategically implementing a range of weed control methods. Many growers are already aware of these principles, but we hope this resource will help them to implement integrated weed management by providing comprehensive information in the one place.”
The manual was part of a larger project that saw the researchers study a range of non-herbicide weed control methods for their effectiveness and user-friendliness within common crops such as pumpkin, melons, potatoes, carrots and leafy greens like cabbage, broccoli and lettuce.
The team found that weeds reduced the operating profit of a sample of vegetable farms by $2,090 per hectare, and it’s hoped the manual and related research will lower this figure while providing a practical knowledge-base for Australia’s vegetable industry.
Image: The research team trialling different hand weeding tools for their effectiveness at UNE's Laureldale Farm.
“We focused on some of the most significant weeds found on vegetable farms to collate information on their ecology and impact, and to determine if particular integrated weed management approaches might be suited to certain weed species,” says A/Professor Kristiansen.
“We also visited vegetable farms that were having success with their integrated weed management strategy to develop case study materials.”
One of the interesting takeaways was that there appears to be no single pathway to successful integrated weed management, even in otherwise relatively similar production systems.
“This is due to the diversity of crops, weed species, climate and soil types, and grower resources and experience across Australian vegetable production,” says A/Professor Kristiansen.
“However, we did note that growers who were diligent in their application of integrated weed management principles, and were happy to experiment with change when things were no longer working or new threats had emerged, were the most likely to have success in getting on top of their weed burden.”
Having access to this information is critical, especially as the industry may not be able to rely as heavily on herbicides for successful weed management in the future.
“In general, herbicides tend to be more effective than non-herbicide approaches in managing weeds, and they’re usually more efficient and cost-effective for busy farmers,” says A/Professor Kristiansen.
“However, in many vegetable crops the range of herbicide available tends to be limited, and focuses more on control of weeds before the crop is planted, or controlling just a subset of weeds growing in the crop, such as grasses. As a result, it is important that vegetable growers supplement their herbicide programme with a variety of non-herbicide methods to ensure greater overall success.”
A strategic approach to weed management for the Australian vegetable industry was a strategic levy investment under the Hort Innovation Vegetable Fund. This project was funded by Hort Innovation using the vegetable research and development levy and contributions from the Australian Government.
