Exploring the Effects of Different Stubble Tillage Practices and Glyphosate Application Combined with the New Soil Residual Herbicide Cinmethylin against Alopecurus myosuroides Huds. in Winter Wheat

Effective control of Alopecurus myosuroides Huds. (blackgrass) solely with a chemical treatment is not guaranteed anymore because populations exhibit resistance to almost all herbicide modes of action. Integrated weed management (IWM) against blackgrass is necessary to maintain high weed control efficacies in winter cereals. Four field experiments were conducted in Southwest Germany from 2018 to 2020 to control A. myosuroides with a combination of cultural and chemical methods. Stubble treatments, including flat, deep and inversion soil tillage; false seedbed preparation and glyphosate use, were combined with the application of the new pre-emergence herbicide cinmethylin in two rates in winter wheat. Average densities of A. myosuroides in the untreated control plots were up to 505 plants m−2. The combination of different stubble management strategies and the pre-emergence herbicide cinmethylin controlled 86–97% of A. myosuroides plants at the low rate and 95–100% at the high rate until 120 days after sowing. The different stubble tillage practices varied in their efficacy between trials and years. Most effective and consistent were pre-sowing glyphosate application on the stubble and stale seedbed preparation with a disc harrow. Stubble treatments increased winter wheat density in the first year but had no effect on crop density in the second year. Pre-emergence application of cinmethylin did not reduce winter wheat densities. Multiple tactics of weed control, including stubble treatments and pre-emergence application of cinmethylin, provided higher and more consistent control of A. myosuroides. Integration of cultural weed management could prevent the herbicide resistance development.

Accurate Segmentation for Low Resolution Satellite images by Discriminative Generative Adversarial Network for Identifying Agriculture Fields

Agricultural field identification is still a difficult issue because of the poor resolution of satellite imagery. Monitoring remote harvest and determining the condition of farmlands rely on the digital approach agricultural applications. Therefore, high-resolution photographs have obtained much more attention since they are more efficient in detecting land cover components. In contrast, because of low-resolution repositories of past satellite images used for time series analysis, wavelet decomposition filter-based analysis, free availability, and economic concerns, low-resolution images are still essential. Using low-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite photos, this study proposes a GAN strategy for locating agricultural regions and determining the crop's cultivation state, linked to the initial or harvesting time. An object detector is used in the preprocessing step of training, followed by a transformation technique for extracting feature information and then the GAN strategy for classifying the crop segmented picture. After testing, the suggested algorithm is applied to the database's SAR images, which are further processed and categorized based on the training results. Using this information, the density between the crops is calculated. After zooming in on SAR photos, the crop condition may be categorized based on crop density and crop distance. The Euclidean distance formula is used to calculate the distance. Finally, the findings are compared to other existing approaches to determine the proposed technique's performance using reliable measures.

EFFECTIVENESS OF SOWING APPLICATION OF DIFFERENT DOSES OF UREA-AMMONIA LIQUORKAS-32, AMMONIUM SULFATE AND COMPOUND NPK FERTILIZER DIAMMOPHOSKA IN LINSEED FLAX CULTIVATION IN TEMPERATELY ARID FOREST-OUTLIER STEPPE

The farming enterprise AO Orbita annually cultivates linseed flax on an area of more than 8 thousand hectares. The areas under crop are located in the zone of temperate-ly arid steppe where resource-saving cropping technolo-gies with direct sowing and fertilization are used. The pre-vailing soils of the arable lands are leached chernozems with low nitrogen supply, increased phosphorus and high exchange potassium. To obtain a seed yield of 2.0 t ha or more, it is necessary to optimize flax nutrition during the first month of its growth. The best fertilizers for small-seeded flax are liquid nitrogen fertilizers and, first of all, urea-ammonia liquor KAS-32containing three forms of nitrogen. However, such experiments are rare in the Re-gion. This paper presents the results of the action of at sowing application of different KAS-32rates with ammoni-um sulfate dissolved init and compound NPK fertilizerDi-ammophoska by using a converted seeder. It was found that under arid conditions (the hydrothermal index over the growing season varied from 0 to 0.6 at 0.74-0.91 normal), fertilizer application contributed to greater crop density, boll formation and the formation of seed yield by 0.06-0.8 t ha above the control. The increase made 4.2-55.9%, the pro-tein content increased to 17.04-20.16% with a protein yield of 0.257-0.412 t ha as compared to 0.24 in the control; the oil content increased to 50.2-52.2% and oil yield –to 0.784-1.128 t ha as compared to 0.736 in the control. The highest indices of yield and seed quality were obtained when 50 kg ha of KAS-32 and ammonium sulfate were applied with 80 kg ha of Diammophoska compound NPK fertilizer.

Comparing Sensor-Based Adjustment of Weed Harrowing Intensity with Conventional Harrowing under Heterogeneous Field Conditions

Setting the right intensity is crucial for the success of post-emergence weed harrowing in cereals. The percentage of crop soil cover (CSC) correlates with the selectivity of weed harrowing. Therefore, real-time camera-based measurements of CSC offer a novel approach to automatically adjust the intensity of harrowing. The intensity of harrowing is varied by hydraulic steering of the tine angle. Five field experiments in cereals were conducted at three locations in southwestern Germany in 2019 and 2020 to measure the effect of camera-based harrowing (2020) and conventional harrowing on weed control efficacy (WCE), crop density, and grain yield. For this purpose, pair-wise comparisons of three fixed harrowing intensities (10°, 40°, and 70° tine angle) and three predefined CSC thresholds (CSC of 10%, 20%, and 60%) were realized in randomized complete block designs. Camera-based intensity adjustment resulted in more homogeneous CSC across the whole plot (6–16% less standard deviation variation) compared to conventional fixed settings of the tine angle. Crop density, WCE, crop biomass, and grain yield were significantly higher for camera-based harrowing than for conventional harrowing. WCE and yields of all automatic adjusted harrowing treatments were equal to the herbicide control plots. Camera-based harrowing provides a robust technology for effective weed management with a lower risk of crop damage than conventional harrowing.

OPTIMIZATION OF THE OF SUNFLOWER CROPS STRUCTURE IN TECHNOLOGIES WITH RETARDANTS APPLICATION

The results of experimental studies to determine the actual changes in stem height, plant productivity and sunflower yield depending on the plant density and different variants of retardant application are presented in the article. The research was carried out in a model field experiment with a density gradient from 19.84 to 160.0 thousand plant / ha. The aim of the research was to determine the optimal parameters of the crop structure of new sunflower Choral hybrid in the technology with retardant application. It has been established that the optimal variant for ensuring the technological parameters of the plant height of the Choral hybrid in the northeastern Forest-Steppe of Ukraine was the complex application of Moddus retardant according to the scheme "seed treatment + plant treatment in the phase of 8-10 leaves". To maintain the basic level of yield, it is proposed to increase the calculated indicators of the final (pre-harvest) crop density from 56.5 to 73.1 thousand plants / ha.

Utilization of the neighborhood design to evaluate suitable cover crops and their density for Echinochloa colona management

Summer weed species, including Echinochloa colona, are becoming problematic in the eastern grain region of Australia, but cover crops can be useful to suppress weeds during the summer fallow period. The present study evaluated the growth and seed production of E. colona grown alone or with four and eight cover crop plants per pot (i.e., 80 and 160 plants m-2). Four legume (cowpea, lablab, pigeonpea, and soybean) and two grass (forage sorghum and Japanese millet) cover crops were used. Interference by cover crops reduced the height, the number of leaves and tillers, inflorescence number, seed production, and biomass of this weed than when it was grown alone. Cover crops differed in their ability to suppress the growth and seed production of E. colona. The effect of cover crop density on the studied attributes was non-significant in most cases. Pigeonpea as a cover crop was the least effective in suppressing the growth and seed production of E. colona. In general, leguminous cover crops exhibited less suppression of E. colona than grasses. Forage sorghum was most efficient in reducing the growth of this weed. Forage sorghum and Japanese millet reduced E. colona leaf and tiller numbers per plant by 90 and 87%, respectively. These cover crops reduced E. colona leaf number to only 17 per plant as against 160 per plant recorded without cover crops. Inflorescence number per E. colona plant growing alone was as high as 48. However, it was reduced by 20–92% when this weed was grown with cover crop plants. E. colona’s seed production was significantly suppressed by all the cover crops, except pigeonpea. Biomass of E. colona was suppressed largely by forage sorghum and Japanese millet compared to other cover crops. Among the cover crops, pigeonpea produced the lowest biomass of 11 g pot-1, and the highest biomass (114 g pot-1) was produced by forage sorghum. The study demonstrated the usefulness of cover crops, especially forage sorghum and Japanese millet, to suppress the growth and seed output of E. colona.

Combined effects of mulching and crop density on soil evaporation, temperature, and water use efficiency of winter wheat

Reducing soil evaporation by different agricultural practices is important not only for water saving but also for its applicability by farmers. In wheat fields, the goal of efficient water management is to save water and increase yield. At present, the combined effects of maize-straw mulching (M) and crop density (D) on soil evaporation and temperature, wheat performance, and water use efficiency (WUE) are not clear. A field experiment was conducted for winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in the North China Plain (NCP). The two levels of crop density included high (HD) and normal density (ND), and the three levels of mulch included high (HM), low (LM), and no mulch (NM). The results indicated that both straw mulching and high crop density had significant inhibitory effects on soil evaporation. Normal crop density with high mulch gave the lowest yield among all treatments because high mulching reduced the soil temperature and hindered the soil temperature increase in early spring. Compared with normal crop density with no mulch, the yield and WUE of winter wheat for high crop density with low mulch (HDLM) were enhanced by 20.6% and 21.9%, respectively. Compared with other treatments, HDLM gave the higher WUE due to the higher soil temperature, leaf area index, and biomass. Therefore, HDLM was an effective way to maximize the WUE of winter wheat in the NCP.

Manipulation of sunflower population density and herbicide rate for economical and sustainable weed management

Field study tested weed control efficacy, crop yield and economic return using various weed management strategies in sunflower growing with different population density. Treatments included four rates of PRE emergence application of S-metolachlor + fluchloridon and one POST emergence application of flumioxazin + quizalofop-pethyl. PRE-em application (1.4 + 2.4 and 1.2 + 2.0) provided at the higher crop densities (70 000) best weed control. However, PRE- em treatments with lower doses (0.8 + 1.6 and 1.0 + 1.8) and POST- em application did not maintain acceptable control of dominant weeds. Grain yield increased with the crop density, but did not statistically differ between applied herbicide treatments. Finally, the implication of this study demonstrated that sole application of tested herbicide treatments at higher crop sowing density (60 000 and 70 000) was found to be economically the best alternative strategy for reducing weed infestation and achieving a better yield.

Uncertainty analysis of the HORTSYST model applied to fertigated tomatoes cultivated in a hydroponic greenhouse system

Aim of study: The objective was to perform an uncertainty analysis (UA) of the dynamic HORTSYST model applied to greenhouse grown hydroponic tomato crop. A frequentist method based on Monte Carlo simulation and the Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) procedure were used.Area of study: Two tomato cultivation experiments were carried out, during autumn-winter and spring-summer crop seasons, in a research greenhouse located at University of Chapingo, Chapingo, Mexico.Material and methods: The uncertainties of the HORTSYST model predictions PTI, LAI, DMP, ETc, Nup, Pup, Kup, Caup, and Mgup uptake, were calculated, by specifying the uncertainty of model parameters 10% and 20% around their nominal values. Uniform PDFs were specified for all model parameters and LHS sampling was applied. The Monte Carlo and the GLUE methods used 10,000 and 2,000 simulations, respectively. The frequentist method included the statistical measures: minimum, maximum, average values, CV, skewness, and kurtosis whilst GLUE used CI, RMSE, and scatter plots.Main results: As parameters were changed 10%, the CV, for all outputs, were lower than 15%. The smallest values were for LAI (10.75%) and DMP (11.14%) and the largest was for ETc (14.47%). For Caup (12.15%) and Pup (12.27%), the CV was lower than the one for Nup and Kup. Kurtosis and skewness values were close as expected for a normal distribution. According to GLUE, crop density was found to be the most relevant parameter given that it yielded the lowest RMSE value between the simulated and measured values.Research highlights: Acceptable fitting of HORTSYST was achieved since its predictions were inside 95% CI with the GLUE procedure.