Weed control in farming
Weeds are described as any plants that grow where the farmer does not want them to grow.
If the farmer plants beans or maize in an area and finds strange plants growing there he must remove them because they are growing where only his desired crop should be. Weeds are dangerous because they consume soil nutrients intended for the crops and they unfairly compete with the crop for sunlight.
They are a nuisance to the farmer since they cost time or even money to remove.
One of the effective ways of fighting weeds is to do ground preparation on time and to plant the seeds as soon as the rains begin so that they germinate well before the weeds do. The crop will then dominate and suppress the weeds.
This method is quite effective if the farmer also applies fertiliser to cause vigorous growth of the crop. As much as possible avoid unnecessary spacing of the crop. Too much space between the crops provides chance for the weeds to grow.
It is also good to plant disease free (clean) planting material so that germination or sprouting takes place very quickly before the weeds do so.
Mulching is another good method of controlling weeds. This is about covering the ground with such material as grass, small tree branches, or leaves so that the weeds are denied space to grow.
Any weeds that manage to emerge out of the ground simply cannot penetrate the grass, leaves, or small tree branches. If any weeds succeed to penetrate the mulch the farmer can quite easily pull them out by hand.
Any removal of weeds should be done when they are still young, before they cast any seeds.
Some people burn the weeds during ground preparation. Burning is effective because it kills both the weeds and their seeds.
If the garden is rather wide some people use herbicides to kill the weeds and their seeds.
Human labour may take too long to remove weeds from a large field and it may frustrate efforts to plant crops early.
Chemical control is also recommended for killing weeds that send out long winding roots under the ground.
Mr Michael Ssali is a veteran journalist,
[email protected]
