Taxonomic and functional characteristics of field edge weed communities along a gradient of crop management intensity

Factors of crop management such as irrigation, cultivation, cultivar selection, and control of insect pests and plant diseases play important roles in watermelon production. To gain a better understanding of how intensity of crop management affects yield, we conducted a comparative study contrasting high and low intensity management in 1997, 1999, and 2000. High-intensity management (HM) included the use of trickle irrigation, black plastic mulch, insecticides, and fungicides, not used under low-intensity management (LM). We examined the effects of management intensity on watermelon productivity, the variation in such effects among watermelon cultivars, and the mediating effect of survival of watermelon plants, abundance of insect pests, and incidence of anthracnose (% leaves with anthracnose lesions). The results indicated that HM produced 100% greater marketable fruit yield per area and marketable fraction of total fruit than LM in 2 out of 3 years. The effect of management intensity on plant survival was related to this effect on yield in 1 out of 2 years, and contributed to the latter by increasing weight and number of marketable fruit per plant under HM. We detected no significant effect of abundance of insect pests and incidence of anthracnose on yield. There was variation in the effect of management intensity on yield among watermelon cultivars in 1 out of 3 years. The triploid `Gem Dandy' showed great differences in yield between HM and LM in 2 years, producing on average 28.9 Mg·ha-1 of marketable fruit yield under HM compared to 14.0 Mg·ha-1 under LM. `Gem Dandy' also produced 100% higher yield of marketable fruit per area, per plant, and marketable fraction of total fruit than the open-pollinated diploid `Allsweet' or the diploid hybrid `Sangria.' Each year during the 3-year study, all three cultivars had a similar density of insect pests, incidence of anthracnose, and plant survival after transplant and at harvest. This study provided information on the collective impact of multiple aspects of watermelon management on yield.

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A framework to type crop management strategies within a production situation to improve the comprehension of weed communities

European Journal of Agronomy ◽

10.1016/j.eja.2020.126009 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 115 ◽

pp. 126009 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Séverin Yvoz ◽

Sandrine Petit ◽

Luc Biju-Duval ◽

Stéphane Cordeau

Keyword(s):

Management Strategies ◽

Crop Management ◽

Weed Communities ◽

Production Situation

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Adaptive Grain Yield Patterns of Triticale (×Triticosecale Wittmack) Cultivars in Six Regions of Poland

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy10030415 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 415 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Adriana Derejko ◽

Marcin Studnicki ◽

Elżbieta Wójcik-Gront ◽

Edward Gacek

Keyword(s):

Grain Yield ◽

Crop Yield ◽

Adaptive Response ◽

Crop Management ◽

Agricultural Crops ◽

Gge Biplot ◽

Growing Seasons ◽

Management Intensity ◽

Triticosecale Wittmack ◽

The Impact

The recommendation of cultivars for a larger number of locations relies on similar agricultural environment or similar crop yield obtained in these locations. There are many studies on the impact of environmental conditions on the yield of cultivars of agricultural crops and recommendation for their cultivation. However, there is little research on triticale in comparison to other cereals. We presented the influence of the cultivar, location nested in region, year, and their interactions on triticale grain yield separately for two levels of crop management intensity. In this work, we checked compatibility in the rankings of cultivars between six regions and compatibility in the rankings of cultivars between locations belonging to the same region. The results indicated a large variation in the rankings of cultivars between locations in the regions, i.e., the ranking of cultivars in locations belonging to the same region was different. We observed low compatibility in rankings between locations for both crop management intensities. The low compatibility of cultivar rankings in trial locations also translates into low precision when determining regions. This means that the process of recommending cultivars to environments should be constantly checked and improved. In addition, using GGE biplot and measure of yield superiority (Pi) we presented an adaptive response of 12 cultivars in six regions at two levels of crop management intensity and their stability during five growing seasons.

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