In the last fifteen years, quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) has garnered much attention because of its high protein content and gluten free profile in comparison to other grains (Jacobsen, 2003). In the past two decades, several researches have shown as quinoa is well adapted to grow under the environmental conditions of the Mediterranean areas, using varieties selected both in Europe and Italy. However, weed control is probably the most critical aspect to manage in quinoa, because there are no herbicides registered in Europe and only mechanical and manual weed control can be used. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the efficacy against weeds and the effects on quinoa of different mechanical and chemical weed control methods. Two field experiments were carried out on quinoa in two consecutive years (exp. 1, 2017; exp. 2, 2018) in central Italy (42°57' N - 12°22' E, 165 m a.s.l.) on a clay-loam soil (24.8% sand, 30.4% clay) with 0.9% organic C content. Quinoa (cv. Regalona) was sown on 08 May 2017 and 24 April 2018 in 0.45 m spaced rows to obtain a final density of 50 plants m-2. Different mechanical and chemical weed control methods and an untreated control were compared in a randomized block experimental design with three replicates and plot size of 19 m2 (2.7 m width). Total weed flora was quite different in the two experiments with an average weed ground cover on the untreated controls of 46% and 159% in the exp. 1 and exp. 2, respectively. In particular, the main weeds in both experiments were: Amaranthus retroflexus L., Portulaca oleracea L., Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) P. Beauv., Chenopodium album L., and Solanum nigrim L. The parasitic weed Cuscuta campestris Yunck was observed only in exp. 1. Mechanical weed control shown to be an effective method to adopt in organic quinoa, adding manual weeding in case of high weeds infestation level. S-metolachlor could be potentially considered for registration as a pre-emergence herbicide in quinoa. The low competitiveness of quinoa against weeds force to obtain high weed control levels in order to avoid grain yield losses.
Mechanical and chemical weed control in quinoa
Pannacci E.
Writing – Original Draft Preparation
;Farneselli M.;Ottavini D.;Tei F.
2019
Abstract
In the last fifteen years, quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) has garnered much attention because of its high protein content and gluten free profile in comparison to other grains (Jacobsen, 2003). In the past two decades, several researches have shown as quinoa is well adapted to grow under the environmental conditions of the Mediterranean areas, using varieties selected both in Europe and Italy. However, weed control is probably the most critical aspect to manage in quinoa, because there are no herbicides registered in Europe and only mechanical and manual weed control can be used. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the efficacy against weeds and the effects on quinoa of different mechanical and chemical weed control methods. Two field experiments were carried out on quinoa in two consecutive years (exp. 1, 2017; exp. 2, 2018) in central Italy (42°57' N - 12°22' E, 165 m a.s.l.) on a clay-loam soil (24.8% sand, 30.4% clay) with 0.9% organic C content. Quinoa (cv. Regalona) was sown on 08 May 2017 and 24 April 2018 in 0.45 m spaced rows to obtain a final density of 50 plants m-2. Different mechanical and chemical weed control methods and an untreated control were compared in a randomized block experimental design with three replicates and plot size of 19 m2 (2.7 m width). Total weed flora was quite different in the two experiments with an average weed ground cover on the untreated controls of 46% and 159% in the exp. 1 and exp. 2, respectively. In particular, the main weeds in both experiments were: Amaranthus retroflexus L., Portulaca oleracea L., Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) P. Beauv., Chenopodium album L., and Solanum nigrim L. The parasitic weed Cuscuta campestris Yunck was observed only in exp. 1. Mechanical weed control shown to be an effective method to adopt in organic quinoa, adding manual weeding in case of high weeds infestation level. S-metolachlor could be potentially considered for registration as a pre-emergence herbicide in quinoa. The low competitiveness of quinoa against weeds force to obtain high weed control levels in order to avoid grain yield losses.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
