Farming is associated with various little yet important work, and to work out on a farm costs almost every ounce of physical and mental strength. And when the farm is flourished it brings an immense joy and it also brings a bigger problem that is weeds. weeds are the biggest challenge for the farm owners and to keep check on this problem, Cornell AgriTech researchers aim to cultivate new methods from the Cornell Projects for zapping the pesky plants, benefiting organic apple and grape flowers and hemp producers in New York state and around the country.
Lynn Sosnoskie, assistant professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science, is collaborating on a $2 million project to study electric weed control in perennial fruit crops. She is also leading a $325,000 weed management study for hemp. Both the Cornell Projects are multi-institution, multi-state undertakings that aim to provide growers with evidence-based, location-specific recommendations to suppress weeds and maximise yields. Both projects will be running for three years starting from September and will be funded by the United States Department Agriculture USDA and National Institute for Food and Agriculture NIFA together.
Sosnoskie while explaining the idea said “We’re going to be in different regions, different production environments, different soil types, different rain patterns. By banding together to do this work, we’ll be able to understand the similarities in our systems and highlight the differences. This will be really useful for developing our extension outreach publications for growers.”
Researchers are also studying whether electric weed control can control weed without actually damaging the soil and crop. They are also partnering with an agricultural economist to study the financial viability of electric weeders, and with an external stakeholder group of organic growers, distributors and scientific advisers to share knowledge.
Due to the nature of apple, grape and other perennial fruit plantings, crop rotation and intensive soil disturbance are not viable strategies for weed control. While Organic herbicides and mulches can be expensive, considering these factors, Sosnoskie and her colleagues consider a novel weed control tool: electricity. The devices they will be testing essentially electrocute weeds by sending a jolt of electricity through the plant, damaging the plant’s cells and chlorophyll.
To study hemp is a bigger challenge as it has CBD producing qualities and the Sosnoskie team will face a challenge as prohibition on hemp production means a red signal on hemp research, she said. “I get a lot of questions about weed control in hemp, and we don’t have a lot of answers other than generalities. What we’re hoping to do is fill in those details.”
Along with Cornell, collaborating institutions for the hemp study are Virginia Tech, Southern Illinois University, North Dakota State University and Clemson University.
Also read: A Renaissance for hemp fibre
