Josué Cerritos
Major Professor: Dr. Stephen Meyers
MS DEFENSE SEMINAR
April 9 @ 1:00 PM
HORT 217 or via Zoom
“Silage tarping for stale seedbed, early-season weed management, and cover crop termination”
Abstract: Silage tarping involves covering the soil with opaque plastic to block light for extended periods, helping to keep fields weed-free early in the season, creating stale seed beds, and terminating cover crops. Field experiments were conducted to determine (1) the effectiveness of silage tarps for creating a stale seedbed in combination with S- metolachlor herbicide and hand-weeding in onion, (2) early- season weed management in small- scale potato production, and (3) cowpea cover crop termination when combined with roller- crimping and mowing. (1) Tarping reduced early-season weed density in onions, but the effects were transient. Sequential applications of S-metolachlor resulted in greater weed control than a single application, and hand weeding was the most decisive factor in reducing weed biomass and increasing onion yield. (2) Tarps injured potatoes, but they recovered. S-metolachlor and tarping treatments provided similar weed control. Weed pressure decreased following a potato hilling. No significant differences were observed between layby treatments for weed control or grass density. Compared to the weedy control, S-metolachlor reduced weed biomass by 75% and increased yield by 73%; metribuzin reduced weed biomass by 76% and increased yield by 81%. (3) Visual cowpea cover crop senescence was inconsistent from roller-crimping and mowing, while all tarping treatments achieved 100% visual cowpea senescence termination at three weeks after treatment (WAT).