THE EFFECT OF THREE TILLAGE TREATMENTS ON WEED INFESTATION IN MAIZE MONOCULTURE

This study assessed the impact of using soil tillage on the weed infestation intensity and weed species composition in maize monoculture. Maize has been grown in monoculture consecutively in our research since 2001 and three treatments of soil tillage were applied: conventional tillage (CT), minimum tillage (MT) and no-tillage (NT). Maize monoculture occurs across large plots of land and due to the growth conditions of maize and emerging conservational tillage technologies a broad variety of weed species is introduced and widespread in such plots. The weed infestation in our research had been observed for four years between 2012 and 2015. An arithmetic method and the multivariate analyses of ecological data were used to determine the effect of tillage on weed infestation. The highest weed infestation mainly formed by perennial species was recorded in NT, whereas rich spectrum of annual weed species were more frequently observed in MT. Based on our results can be stated that the specific soil treatments have created different conditions not only for weed emergence, but also for soil properties. Thus, studying the effect of soil tillage treatments on weed infestation may enable further development of weed infestation prediction followed by a targeted application of herbicides leading to the farmers' cost cutting and less stress for environment.