Impact of crop mixtures on weeds
- Start – End: 2018 – 2018
- Institution: ETH Zurich
- Authors: Zita Sartori, Laura Stefan & Christian Schöb
Summary
Growing crops in mixtures can have multiple benefits for ecosystem functioning. One benefit might be a reduction in weeds in diverse crop communities due to more efficient use of the available resources through a combination of different crop species. The results of this Bachelor thesis demonstrate that crop mixtures can indeed reduce weed pressure. In particular, for poorly competitive crop species, which would otherwise suffer strong competition from weeds, mixture cropping with competitive cereals can strongly alleviate weed pressure. The study demonstrates that crop mixtures can contribute to a sustainable crop production through natural measures to fight weeds.