Vegetable Weed Control with Minimal Herbicide Inputs

Numerous concerns among the general public and farm community have provided a renewed interest in methods for growing crops with fewer inputs of energy and chemicals and for renewed efforts to conserve soil and water resources. Pest control researchers have long realized that heavy reliance on one control strategy produces adapted pest populations that may evolve to become more troublesome than the previous generations. Therefore, there is a need to develop and implement sustainable systems that integrate biological, cultural, mechanical, and chemical strategies. To be acceptable, these systems should be economic in both the short and long term. As usual, the vegetable grower finds him or herself in a squeeze; this time, between concern for protection of the environment and the production of residue-free produce and economics, i.e., how to do this with reduced chemical input and still make a profit? The major reason for using herbicides, in the first place, was to replace expensive and often difficult-to-find labor that was required for weed control.