Weed-Competitive Ability of Spring and Winter Cereals in the Northern Great Plains

Abstract

The inclusion of winter cereals in spring-annual rotations in the northern Great Plains may reduce weed populations and herbicide requirements. A broad range of spring and winter cereals were compared for ability to suppress weeds and maximize grain yield at Lacombe (2002 to 2005) and Lethbridge (2003 to 2005), Alberta, Canada. High seeding rates (≥ 400 seeds/m2) were used in all years to maximize crop competitive ability. Spring cereals achieved high crop-plant densities (> 250 plants/m2) at most sites, but winter cereals had lower plant densities due to winterkill, particularly at Lethbridge in 2004. All winter cereals and spring barley were highly effective at reducing weed biomass at Lacombe for the first 3 yr of the study. Weed suppression was less consistently affected by winter cereals in the last year at Lacombe and at Lethbridge, primarily due to poor winter survival. Grain yields were highest for spring triticale and least for spring wheat at Lacombe, with winter cereals intermediate. At Lethbridge, winter cereals had higher grain yields in 2003 whereas spring cereals had higher yields in 2004 and 2005. Winter cereals were generally more effective at suppressing weed growth than spring cereals if a good crop stand was established, but overlap in weed-competitive ability among cultivars was considerable. This information will be used to enhance the sustainable production of winter and spring cereals in traditional and nontraditional agro-ecological zones.

Triticale vs durum wheat: A performance comparison in a Mediterranean environment

“…The yield component for which triticale demonstrated a consistent superiority was KNO, which was largely generated by a higher level of KPE at similar levels of EPM. According to Beres et al (2010), triticales tiller less readily than bread wheat, whereas Giunta et al (2015) showed that tillering capacity in triticale is highly cultivar-dependent, and is generally superior to that of durum wheat. It is probable that the relatively high sowing density used was not permissive of a full expression of potential species differences in tillering capacity: most of the 450 ears m −2 were borne on the main stem (the mean number of tillers per plant was 0.3).…”

“…The former has been growing in popularity as a source of livestock feed, and is more recently being promoted as a feedstock for bioethanol production (Beres et al, 2010;Pejin et al, 2009). The characteristic feature of the Mediterranean environment is the high probability of terminal drought, while moisture stress during the winter months is rare (Loss and Siddique, 1994).…”

Variability of yield traits and disease resistance in winter triticale genetic resources accessions

“…Triticale is uniquely different from other cereals in nutritional quality and broader adaptability. It also has a higher yield potential, is generally more competitive with weeds than wheat and displays better tolerance to drought and pests than its ancestral species [1, 3,4].…”

Influence of N fertilization method on weed growth, grain yield and grain protein concentration in no-till winter wheat

“…Variation in the response to fall N fertilization may be due to differences in cold-tolerance among cultivars and in severity of cold temperature stress. The competitive ability of winter cereals with weeds can be substantially reduced by winterkill of the crop (Beres et al 2010b).…”