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ecmn | Oh man, I love this question.
What kind of conditions need to be met for a weed to thrive?
They love anaerobic/ compacted soil
Tillage destroys the structure
Packer behind planter seals surface,.rain carries tiny soil particles filling pore spaces. Oxygen gets pushed out
Oxygen levels drop and soil goes anaerobic
Anaerobic bacteria thrives
Aggregates break down
Water cycle gets broken
Roots are restricted on growth
This is where weeds thrive! They've built Roots for these conditions. Tap, fibrous rhizome, specifically built for compacted low oxygen, nutrient flush soils.
They love stratified nutrients
Tillage and soluble nutrients create a stratification layer
We put on a lot of soluble fertilizer. Our crops need available nutrients. The weeds thrive with soluble. They've adapted to this flush of nutrients. They don't have to compete with our crop in the top couple inches. We are literally feeding the weeds before our plants
They love an opportunity bare dirt
We create the perfect seed bed for weeds. Warm moist lots of soluble nutrients and no competition. We are literally rolling out the red carpet for the weeds.
They love low-functioning fungi high bacteria soil
Soil with a .5-1 or lower F/B ratio
Poor nutrient cycling
Weak aggregation
No fungal network
Predator -prey out of balance
High disease pressure
High pest pressure
This soil is going to require lots of tillage, fertilizer, herbicide, fungicide, insecticide
Predictable patterns.
Nature loves predictable, it can adapt so fast.
We saw it with
Waterhemp
Corn root worm
Amaranth...
Every year we do the same thing at the same time
They adapt to this.
Their germination windows get wider
Their resistance traits strengthen
And they start to sync to us
They love low carbon cycling
When the rest of the system isn't functioning, neither is your carbon cycling.
Corn huge biomass fantastic big root system. You're only contributing carbon 80 to 100 days.
Soybeans, very little biomass very little root structure and only a few months of contributing carbon.
This soil is going to have weak aggregates
Poor nutrient cycling
Poor water cycling
Anaerobic
Compacted
Susceptible to erosion
Nutrients are more able to Leach out through the tile lines
Again, this is the absolute perfect environment for weeds and not our crop. This is why the weeds can grow so fast and run over our crop if we let them.
We're playing on their home field that we built for them
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thoughts on weed control without chemicals??
