and Reducing Yield Loss in Flax Lena Syrovy and Steve Shirtliffe - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Seed, Seed, Seed! Managing Weeds and Reducing Yield Loss in Flax Lena Syrovy and Steve Shirtliffe

Part I – Cover Crops for Weed Control

Year 1 – Flax (without or with winter cereal) Flax only (no cover crop) Flax + Winter Wheat Flax + Winter Barley Flax + Fall Rye Photos: H.S.N. Duddu

Year 2 - Cereal Flax + Winter Wheat Flax only (no cover crop) Flax + Winter Barley Flax + Fall Rye

Weed Suppression 350 a 300 Weed Biomass (g m -2 ) 250 ab 200 b 150 b 100 50 0 Flax Flax + Fall Rye Flax + Winter Barley Flax + Winter Wheat

Year 1 - Flax “suppression” No cover crop vs cover crop: P = 0.04 600 - 46% 500 Year 1 Flax Yield (kg ha -1 ) 400 300 200 100 0 Flax Flax + Fall Rye Flax + Winter Barley Flax + Winter Wheat

Year 2 – Cereal Yield 1800 1600 Year 2 Cereal Yield (kg ha -1 ) 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 Flax/SW Flax/SR Flax + FR/FR Flax + WB/SW Flax + WW/WW

Reduced Cover Crop Seeding Rates 1x = 200 targeted plants m -2 0.5x = 100 targeted plants m -2 450 P = 0.02 a 400 350 Flax Yield (kg ha -1 ) 300 b 250 b 200 150 100 50 0 0.0 0.5 1.0 Cover Crop Seeding Rate (prop of recommended)

Flax + Winter Cereal Flax only (no cover crop) Flax + Winter Wheat Flax + Winter Barley Flax + Fall Rye Photos: H.S.N. Duddu

Part II – Mechanical Weed Control

Slide credit: O. Alba

Slide credit: O. Alba

10” row cultivation organic hemp Kroeker Farms/Poplar Grove Organics Slide credit: K. Stanley

Pre-emergence or after flax crop rooted Flax crop 5-10 cm or taller Slide credit: O. Alba

Crop Seeding Rate vs Weeds All Plots 70 plants m -2 140 plants m -2 Herbicide Free 280 plants m -2 560 plants m -2 Redlick et al., 2014, Weed Sci. 65(4): 525-533

IWM for organic flax + + Increased crop seeding Rotary hoe Inter-row cultivation rates

IWM for organic flax 1200 500 450 1000 22% 400 Weed Biomass (g m -2 ) 55% Flax Yield (kg ha -1 ) 350 33% 800 300 600 250 2.2 x 200 400 150 Control Control Rotary Hoe 100 Rotary Hoe 200 Inter-row Inter-row 50 Rotary Hoe + Inter-row Rotary Hoe + Inter-row 0 0 0 500 1000 1500 2000 0 500 1000 1500 2000 Seeding Rate (targeted plants m -2 ) Seeding Rate (targeted plants m -2 )

Flax Tolerance to Rotary Hoe 250 plants/m 2 2000 plants/m 2

Rotary hoe Rotary hoe Control Control Combined Inter-row Inter-row Combined 250 plants/m 2 seeding rate at Goodale 2000 plants/m 2 seeding rate at Goodale Photos: Y. Shen

Control Rotary hoe Control Rotary hoe Inter-row Combined Inter-row Combined 2000 plants/m 2 seeding rate at Kernen 250 plants/m 2 seeding rate at Kernen Photos: Y. Shen

Acknowledgements • Technical & Research Staff: Agronomy Research Crew: Shaun Campbell, Taryn – Zdunich & many others • Graduate and Undergraduate Students Quentin Lebastard, Oleksandr Alba, Yanben Shen –