IPM - Weed Management

IPM plays an important role in any agricultural operation and this is no different at the tree nursery where I am employed. The majority of our crop is conifer trees, grown for distribution and reforestation in the National Forests within the Rocky Mountain region and luckily for us pests aren't a major issue, but one of the major pests we do fight throughout the year is weeds.

Weed control is serious business, especially with young seedlings that can easily be choked out and deprived of necessary resources such as water, light and nutrients. There are many ways in which we can deal with weeds on the farm and a few that we use are cover cropping, mechanical implements and good old-fashioned hand pulling.

Cover crops serve several important functions including erosion control and adding organic matter to the soil but another one of the great benefits of cover crops is weed control. Timing is everything and if you time it right, your cover crop will out compete the weeds by creating an environment that does not allow the weeds to maximize their growth potential, in essence smothering them out.

A freshly cultivated and weeded seedling bed of Cottonwood trees.

We also use several mechanical implements that attach to tractors to cultivate the areas around our growing beds and keep the weeds knocked down, not allowing them to flower and create more seed. Several of the techniques we use are tilling, discing and duck-footing, all of which turn and cultivate the soil, uprooting the weeds and killing them off.

And lastly, my favorite is good old hand weeding. Yes, it's labor intensive and not usually a popular choice among our crew members but the fact is hand weeding is highly effective if done correctly and avoids the use of chemical herbicides which should be considered only as a last resort.

By using all of these techniques in an integrated approach we have great success keeping our seedling beds weed free and our seedlings happy and

healthy for our clients!

( On the right a seedling that has become overrun with weeds, on the left the same seedling with the weeds removed by hand.)