Flaming, Glyphosate, Hot Foam and Nonanoic Acid for Weed Control: A Comparison

Abstract

Synthetic herbicides are commonly used in weed management, however, 70 years of use has led to weed resistance and environmental concerns. These problems have led scientists to consider alternative methods of weed management in order to reduce the inputs and impacts of synthetic herbicides. The aim of this experiment was to test the level of weed control using four weeding methods: glyphosate applied at an ultra-low volume, the organic herbicide nonanoic acid, flaming, and hot foam. The results showed that weed control was effective only when flaming and hot foam were applied (99% and 100% weed control, respectively). Nonanoic acid at a dose of 11 kg a.i. ha−1 diluted in 400 L of water did not control developed plants of Cyperus esculentus (L.), Convolvulus arvensis (L.) and Poa annua (L.). Glyphosate at a dose of 1080 g a.i. ha−1 (pure product) only controlled P. annua (L.), but had no effect on C. esculentus (L.) and C. arvensis (L.). After the aboveground tissues of weeds had died, regrowth began earlier after flaming compared to hot foam. There was no regrowth of P. annua (L.) only after using hot foam and glyphosate. Hot foam was generally better at damaging the meristems of the weeds. In one of the two experiment sites, significantly more time was needed after the hot foam to recover 10% and 50% of the ground compared to flaming. The time needed to recover 90% of the ground was on average 26–27 days for flaming and hot foam, which is the time that is assumed to be required before repeating the application. A total of 29 days after the treatments, weeds were smaller after flaming, glyphosate and hot foam compared to nonanoic acid and the control, where they had more time to grow.

Innovative Living Mulch Management Strategies for Organic Conservation Field Vegetables: Evaluation of Continuous Mowing, Flaming, and Tillage Performances

“…Those species were mainly represented by perennial rosette-forming weeds such as Rumex spp. and Plantago lanceolata L. Those findings confirm that thermal weeding techniques are not effective on these weeds' typology because of the resources stored in their roots [58]. Moreover, the summer weeds community exerts a higher pressure on eggplants, and this was aggravated by the sprinkler irrigation adopted.…”

Comparison between flaming, mowing and tillage weed control in the vineyard: Effects on plant community, diversity and abundance

“…Plant cover was contained under tillage and flame weeding. Respect to mowing, the vegetation underwent a major disturbance which created a difficulty in re-sprouting [ 25 ]. Under mowing, instead, where many perennial and taller plants were detected, the plants were ready and adapted for a rapid regrowth (see also discussion about functional groups).…”

“…In particular, it was shown that type and intensity of management can produce marked changes in the biodiversity associated to the vineyard [ 20 , 24 ]. As an example, concerning the merely weed control, flaming was compared to glyphosate, hot foam and nonanoic acid for weed control, and it was shown that flaming and hot foam were more efficient than the other tested techniques [ 25 ]. In this work, the effect of one-sided biomass-fueled flaming at different intensities (slow and fast speed flaming) on plant community composition and abundance in the vineyard was assessed in comparison to mechanical tillage and mowing techniques.…”

Hot foam and hot water for weed control: A comparison

“…Compared to hot water alone, the addition of foam requires less water, has a lower susceptibility to weather changes, a high application accuracy and speed as well as a low cost (Peerzada and Chauhan, 2018;Wei et al, 2010). The aboveground vegetative tissues of weeds can be effectively controlled by hot water and hot foam (Hansson and Matsson, 2002;Martelloni et al, 2019Martelloni et al, , 2020. In fact, most thermal methods affect the aboveground portion of the plants, however some weeds (i.e., perennial weeds) may regrow from their belowground components (Peerzada and Chauhan, 2018;Kup and Saglam, 2014).…”

“…The regrowth of weeds after the death of the aboveground vegetative tissues is an important indicator in validating the effectiveness of a weed control technique. Given that a technique should kill the weeds after being applied, the time weeds take to regrow and cover the ground again is an indicator of how many times the technique needs to be repeated in the annual management of weeds (Martelloni et al, 2020). To the best of our knowledge, there has been no research comparing different doses of hot foam and hot water to control weeds.…”