Download Ecological agriculture: essay of weed control management on

Ecological agriculture: essay of weed control management on Salvia lavandulifolia Vahl.
and Lavandula latifolia Medikus. Culture from Castilla-La Mancha (Spain).
Usano-Alemany J1, Herraiz D1, Cuadrado J1, Palá-Paúl J2
1 Centro de Investigación Agraria de Albaladejito. Consejería de Agricultura. Junta de Comunidades de
Castilla-La Mancha, 16194-Cuenca, Spain. [email protected]. 2 Dpto. Biología Vegetal I (Botánica),
Facultad de Biología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040-Madrid, Spain.
An essay of the weed control on ecological agriculture has been carried out during the last three
years in the Agronomical Research Centre of Albaladejito (Spain). Three different cover
managements have been tested: fresh plants of Vicia sativa, distil plant residues from aromatic
plants and barley straw, on the tillage of two aromatic and medicinal plants from Castilla-La
Mancha Province: Lavandula latifolia Medikus and Salvia lavandulifolia Vahl. Weed control with
cover management is considered an alternative technique to conventional soil working. All the
cover managements were found to reduce the weed in all the tested tillage, although the barley
straw cover showed to be the most efficient one. Besides, cover management involves several
benefits as an erosion control, maintenance of the soil moisture or increasing the organic part of
the soil. The weed control with this type of covers could be an effective alternative to the use of
herbicides and the most suitable one in ecological agriculture. As far as we know this is the first
report about the weed control in the tillage of these two aromatic and medicinal plants.