Journal
JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING
Volume 48, Issue 2, Pages 57-70Publisher
PAGEPRESS PUBL
DOI: 10.4081/jae.2017.583
Keywords
Agricultural engineering; cultivator; flamer; harrow; mechanical implement; non-chemical weed control; physical weed control; robotic weeding; thermal implement
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Intra-row weed control in organic or low-input cropping systems is more difficult than in conventional agriculture. The various mechanical and thermal devices available for intra-row weed control are reported in this review. Low-tech mechanical devices such as cultivators, finger-weeders, brush weeders, and torsion-weeders tend to be used in low density crops, while spring-tine harrows are mainly applied in narrow-row high-density crops. Flame weeding can be used for both narrow and wide-row sown crops, provided that the crop is heat-tolerant. Robotic weeders are the most recent addition to agricultural engineering, and only a few are available on the market. Nowadays, robotic weeders are not yet used in small and medium sized farms. In Europe, high-income niche crops are often cultivated in small farms and farmers cannot invest in high-tech solutions. Irrespectively of the choice of low-or high-tech machines, there are several weeders that can be used to reduce the use of herbicides, making of them a judicious use, or decide to avoid them.
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