Maize is one of the easiest crops to mechanically weed and levels of weed control comparable to herbicides can be achieved. Find out more about the options available and how they work in this maize update.
Key Points:
- Maize is one of the easiest crops to weed mechanically and results can be exceptional.
- There are two main forms of mechanical weeders; contiguous and incontiguous.
- Contiguous weeders for maize include the spring time harrow, spoon weeder and the Einböck Aerostar-Rotation. They are a straight drop-in replacement for herbicide application.
- The most common incontiguous weeder is a row-hoe. Modern row-hoes weed both the interrow and intrarow. They are more aggressive than contiguous weeders and require the drill and row-hoe to be perfectly matched.
- As the ideal weather windows for mechanical weeding and herbicide application differ, the two approaches are highly complementary.