Grain legumes represent important crops for livestock feed and contribute to novel uses in the food industry; therefore, the best cultivation practices need to be assessed. This study aimed to identify herbicides to meet the current need for controlling broadleaf weeds without phytotoxicity in the grain legume crop per se. Field experiments were undertaken during the 2019 and 2020 growing seasons and laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replicates as follows: four grain legume crops (vetch, pea, faba bean, and white lupine) and nine pre-emergence (PRE) or post-emergence selective (POST) herbicide treatments (PRE: aclonifen, pendimethalin plus clomazone, metribuzin plus clomazone, benfluralin, terbuthylazine plus pendimethalin, S-metolachlor plus pendimethalin, flumioxazin; POST: pyridate, imazamox) alongside weedy check plots. Plant phytotoxicity, crop dry matter, yield features, weed presence, and weed dry matter were assessed during the experiments. There was differential efficacy among the nine herbicide treatments; the weed control was more effective in the case of Veronica arvensis L. and Sonchus spp. L. compared with Chenopodium album L., Sinapis arvensis L., and Silibum marianum L. regardless of the herbicide treatment. The most effective PRE herbicide was flumioxazin, which had the greatest control over the majority of weeds (>70%) resulting in the lowest total weed biomass. The second-best treatment was benfluralin and the mixture of terbuthylazine plus pendimethalin (both had only limited control in S. arvensis). The best POST herbicide was imazamox, with only limited control in S. arvensis. The tested herbicides caused low to medium and transient levels of phytotoxicity mainly in vetch and secondly in peas but not in faba beans and lupines. Concerning all weed management treatments, benfluralin resulted in the highest grain yields for all four grain legume crops during both growing seasons. Among grain legumes, vetch had the highest competitive ability against weeds, whereas peas were the least tolerant against weed competition.

A field trial was conducted (2020–2021) in a randomized complete block design arranged according to the split-plot design to evaluate the integrated effects of an alternative fertilization practice based on the application of a microbial biostimulant in combination with different weed control methods on weed growth and maize productivity. Two fertilization practices, conventional (CF) and alternative (AF), formed the main plots. The CF supplied maize with 160 kg N ha⁻¹. The AF included a foliar application of the biostimulant NitroStim^®, which contains N₂-fixing bacteria (1 × 10¹² colony forming units; CFU L⁻¹) along with a 50% lower fertilizer incorporation rate (80 kg N ha⁻¹). Four weed control treatments formed the subplots: one inter-row mechanical cultivation (M1), two inter-row mechanical cultivations (M2), tembotrione application (99 g a.i. ha⁻¹; H), and an untreated control (CON). Combined over the years (p ≥ 0.05), fertilization, weed control, and their interactions affected (p ≤ 0.05) weed density and biomass, maize grain yield, and nitrogen partial factor productivity (PFP_N). The AF reduced weed biomass by 28% compared to the CF. M1 resulted in a high value (389 g m⁻²). M2 and H reduced weed biomass compared to (M1 ≥ 70%). Weed biomass dropped below 35 g m⁻² in the AF × H and AF × M2 subplots. Observations on weed density were similar. The AF resulted in 12 and 56% higher maize grain yield and PFP_N than the CF, respectively. M2 increased grain yield by 18 and 25% compared to M1 and CON, respectively, and was not different from H. Moreover, AF × H and AF × M2 were the highest-yielding interactions (≥12,000 kg grain ha⁻¹). AF × M2 increased PFP_N by 56, 58, 64, and 67% compared to CF × H, CF × M2, CF × M1, and CF × CON, respectively, while AF × H resulted in similar PFP_N.

Sustainable crop and weed management is among the crucial challenges in the era of the EU Green Deal. The main objective of the present study was to apply an innovative approach for the rapid assessment of herbicide efficacy in maize (Zea mays) crop in four different trials during two years. Weed NDVI values were recorded at two weeks after treatment, while weed biomass and crop yield were also measured. The results revealed significant differences between the several treatments. In many cases, significant effects of herbicide application on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values and weed biomass were noticed at two weeks after treatment. Moreover, the mixture nicosulfuron + rimsulfuron + mesotrione resulted in high efficacy on the crop yield of all fields. Consequently, our approach can allow for an early prediction of the real field efficacy of several herbicides and thus act as an alert for the farmers in order to choose the most efficient herbicide, avoid applications of low efficacy and reduce the herbicide inputs.