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Use of Flame Cultivation as a Nonchemical Option for Weed Control in Commercial Cranberry Production
Executive Summary
Weed management is needed to produce substantial crops in cranberries and strategies are needed to control aggressive weed populations. Herbicide use is the standard method for controlling established weeds but growers are willing to incorporate viable and economical nonchemical options and reduce herbicide inputs. It is a primary goal of the WeedIIPM program at the UMass Cranberry Station to support the continued reduction of pesticide inputs into the cranberry production system.
Flame cultivation (FC; the use of high temperatures to kill weeds) has been used in agiculture for more than 150 years. With the introduction of inexpensive herbicides in the mid 2oth century, use of FC declined in conventional agriculture while retaining its popularity in organic systems. In recent years, with growing interest to reduce pesticide inputs, the efficacy of FC has become a renewed area of research for many agricultural scientists. The proposed work would provide new data that could be utilized by many perennial fruit crop researchers and growers.
Some FC work has been conducted on herbaceous weeds in vegetable and noncrop systems, but no work has been conducted on perennial weeds or dodder in a woody crop system. For cranberries, managing perennial weeds and dodder has been cited as a research priority by the Cape Cod Cranbeny Growers' Association Research Committee. The use of FC may offer a method to manage perennial weeds and dodder and as a result, reduce herbicide inputs into the cranberry production system.
We propose to evaluate the efficacy of three hand-held flame cultivators (one open flame and two infrared devices). We propose three studies: evaluate hand-held FC on at least two perennial weed species on commercial farms, evaluate the growth response to burn injury of cranberry vines present in the infestations as well as in a separate greenhouse study, and evaluate the efficacy of FC for postemergence dodder control. A conventional herbicide and untreated control will also be included.
We propose conducting grower surveys to assess experience with FC as well as potential adoption and implementation. We will develop an economic analysis. Findings will be disseminated through Extension meetings and publications, hands-on workshops, field tours of demonstration sites, "how-to" DVD, web stream video, and presentations at scientific meetings and in peer-reviewed journals.