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» Articles | Agricultural Journals

Harrowing is one of the most popular mechanical methods to control weeds. Nevertheless, the relationship between the effect of different harrowing intensities using spike-tooth harrow in barley-pea intercrop on the yield and mycoflora of grains has not yet been studied. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the effect of harrow intensity using spike-tooth harrow in barley-pea mixture on the mycological quality of harvested grains, grain yield, as well as influence of barley and pea grain moisture on the abundance of fungi. The field experiment was carried out during 2010–2012, and it was conducted using a randomized complete block design with four replicates. Weed control was mechanical and chemical. In this study, we have shown that harrowing in barley-pea intercrops does not reduce the yield of either mixture components, both with respect to grain quantity or mycological quality after harvest, compared to controls—without harrowing and the herbicide MCPA (2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid). However, increasing the intensity of harrowing did not result in a consistently larger crop yield or reduction in fungal abundance in the grains. The grains’ internal structures and surface of both tested components of the mixture were colonized to a large extent by cosmopolitan fungi, of which Alternaria alternata (Fr.) Keissl. was the most abundant.

The aim of the study was to find the most beneficial time of weed harrowing with its intensity represented by the number of passes with spring-tine harrow executed on one day in a mixture of triticale (×Triticosecale Wittm.) and narrow-leaved lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.). The randomized complete block design was applied in field conditions in 2015–2017. It comprised one factor, the timing and the intensity of post-emergence weed harrowing with the spring-tine harrow. The plots were harrowed once, twice, or three times on one day at six consecutive growth stages of triticale: BBCH 10, 11, 12, 13, 21, 22. Harrowing did not increase the grain yield of the triticale-lupin mixture, and when repeated three times at BBCH 21, it decreased the grain yield. The cereal was more resistant than lupin to timing and intensity of harrowing. The weeds were best controlled by a single cultivation conducted at the first leaf of triticale. This method caused a significant reduction in the density and the biomass of weeds at the anthesis of triticale and a reduction in the weed biomass at the full maturity of the mixture. Increasing intensity of harrowing by repeating cultivations had relatively weak influence on the weeds.