Rethinking weed control in the nursery

摘要

The only weed management tools in container plant production (other than a few herbicides for grass weed control) are preemergence herbicides and hand weeding. Labor for hand weeding is becoming more and more expensive and difficult to find. It may bemore important now than ever to find ways to manage weeds efficiently. Recent estimates show that weed control costs can exceed $10,000 per ha ($4,000 per ac.) (Mathers, 2003). These costs typically include herbicide costs, application costs, and hand weeding costs. These estimates often do not include the opportunity cost that is lost when labor is diverged from profit generating tasks (potting, propagating, etc.) to hand weeding - a profit reducing task.