Farmers who do n’t rely on or who require to minimize the utilization of chemical substance herbicides need originative solutions to get ahead the battle against aggressive repeated dope . In ongoing research at the University of Illinois on Canada thistle , Sudangrass is prove to be a suitable contender as a summer smother harvest .
“ Sudangrass gets very tall ; it out - competes the thistle for light . The Sudangrass produce ghost so photosynthesis can not occur in the thistle , ” said University of Illinois weed scientist John Masiunas . “ In our test plots , chiefly in the northerly part of Illinois , we ’ve see 95 percent ascendency , so Farmer can plant a cash craw the observe year in the piece that had been infect with Canada thistle . ”
Planting time of Sudangrass is critical if used as a smother craw .
“ It ’s get to be seeded in the first duo of workweek in June . If you get much past the mid - to late June , the Sudangrass is not able to vie adequately , because the thistle turn rapidly in that clock time period , ” Masiunas said .
A combination of mowing and tilling the Canada thistle before plant the Sudangrass is also recommend .
“ Tilling and mowing the thistle interrupts its aliveness round so that it ca n’t put vim back into the root , ” Masiunas said .
pout the Sudangrass is also crucial for several other reasons .
“ you may mow to prevent seminal fluid psyche from forge on the Sudangrass and reseed itself , and mowing helps to moderate the amount of residue , ” he said . “ If you let the Sudangrass grow the intact season , you ’ll have a plant 7 or 8 feet magniloquent , with a mess of shoot tissue paper — a stack of biomass to take with . So when you mow it , you just depart it as a aerofoil mulch . ”
Research on the use of Sudangrass as a smother crop , conducted by University of Illinois alumnus student Abram Bicksler , originated from organic sodbuster ’ motion about Canada thistle .
“ Particularly for sustainable ororganic farmer , Canada thistle was becoming very difficult to get by and was becoming the job sess , ” Masiunas said .
After Bicksler ’s project was completed , Masiunas received funding fromSustainable Agriculture Research and Educationfor additional research with farmers around Illinois . For the past three year , research specializer Dan Anderson has been working with nine to 20 husbandman each summer on environmentally friendly ways to control Canada thistle .
“ The James Leonard Farmer I ’ve been lick with are principally in the northern part of Illinois , ” Anderson enjoin .
Because of the weed ’s adaptation , Canada thistle needs a farsighted daytime , so it ’s not as much of a problem in southern Illinois , Georgia , Mississippi or Alabama .
“ I ’ve seen some frightful fields in northerly Illinois , just full of thistle , ” Anderson read . “ The Sudangrass was implant on patches of ground where Canada thistle was prevailing , some larger plot and some smaller . That ’s one of the vantage — you do n’t have to consecrate the entire bailiwick to this . ”
Masiunas stress that the problem of Canada thistle is ordinarily found in patches .
“ What we ’re purpose at is to annihilate a trouble in patches that happen in a domain . Our purpose is not to wangle Canada thistle on 100 Akko but in area that might be 100 hearty foot , ” he said . “ The hope is that the farmer would catch the Canada thistle in a comparatively small spell in an intensively managed farm . If they ’re doing a heap of farmland , they ’re not going to have as grave a case of Canada thistle . If they ’re doing slim tilled land and stick around on top of the locoweed , they might have a low patch of Canada thistle , but it should n’t have submit over a whole field . ”
Anderson say that some of the farms he has been working with also have a farm animal component part .
“ The Sudangrass can be mowed and leave as a smother crop , or it can begrazed , ” he said .
Masiunas say that farmers might incorporate Sudangrass as anintegrated pestilence managementapproach if they ’re seek to diversify their management strategies .
“ You ’re generally not going to get 100 per centum control with any type of herbicide that you may use against Canada thistle—95 to 98 percent ascendency is about the best you ’ll get with the best software of herbicide . And we ’re get a similar degree of ascendance with Sudangrass . ”
