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Night Tillage for Weed Control

Determine if reducing exposure of weed seeds to light will help control weeds in crops.

Location: Culdesac, Idaho
Annual precipitation: 22 inches
Soil: Silt loam
Previous crops: Wheat, pea, spring barley, winter barley

Day tillage - 3 cultivations under normal conditions
Night tillage - 3 cultivations at night. Cultivator was covered with a plastic tarp and front and rear tractor lights were used.

The fall barley stubble was worked up in the spring. After the day and night tillage treatments were performed all plots were planted to Harrington spring barley in the daylight. No herbicides were applied to either the day or night treatment plots. Weeds were counted at six locations within each plot. Plot size was 36 by 500 ft.

Data

Weed emergence. Source: Joan M. Campbell, Larry Smith, and Donn Thill

Time of cultivation	Field pennycress	Redroot pigweed	Mayweed chamomile	Henbit	Total weeds
	------------------------------------------------------------plants/yd2----------------------------------------------------------------
Night	8	1	23	10	42
Day	12	3	35	16	67
Prob > F1	0.18	0.01	0.38	0.03	0.01

  ¹ Probability of a greater "F" value according to nonparametric analysis of variance (values below 0.05 would be equivalent to significant at LSD(5%))

There was no significant grain yield difference between day and night treatments. Weed counts measured an average of 37% fewer weeds in the night tilled plots.

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Hans Kok, WSU/UI Extension Conservation Tillage Specialist, UI Ag Science 231, PO Box 442339, Moscow, ID 83844 USA Redesigned by Leila Styer, CAHE Computer Resource Unit; Maintained by Debbie Marsh, Dept. of Crop & Soil Sciences, WSU