Burning of weed seeds in low rainfall farming systems

Authors: Ben Fleet, Samuel Kleemann and Gurjeet Gill

University of Adelaide, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine

Funded By: SAGIT S416

Project Title: Burning of weed seeds in low rainfall farming systems project

Key Words: wind row burning, harvest weed seed control, weed control

Key Messages

• Seeds of all species could be killed with heat, however there were differences in tolerance to heat.
• Duration of heat treatments had a significant impact on the efficacy on weed seeds in all species.
• Seeds of most weed species could be killed by simulating conditions similar to burning narrow harvest windrows.
• The efficacy of narrow windrow burning in the field is largely determined by the proportion of weed seeds that can be collected by the header and placed into harvest windrows.