The Effect of Chemical and Non-Chemical Control Methods on Weeds in Potato (Solanum Tuberosum L.) Cultivation in Ardabil Province, Iran

Potato is one of the most important crops in Iran and on average, this crop is affected annually by weeds damage which must be prevented by various control methods.Crop residues and other types of mulches are non-chemical methods of weed control in sustainable agricultural systems.The aim of present study was to investigate the effect of chemical and non-chemical control methods on weeds in potato crop.An experiment was conducted in 2015 in two agricultural research stations of Alarogh and Samian in Ardabil city in a randomized complete block design with three replications.The treatments were as follows: 1) Trifluralin herbicide, 2) Metribuzin herbicide, 3) cultivator, 4) wheat straw mulch, 5) canola straw mulch, 6) black plastic mulch, 7) transparent plastic mulch 8) weed infested and 9) weed free.Based on results, all treatments were affected by weed control methods (P≤ 0.01), so that Shannon-Wiener index treatment was (P≤ 0.05).The greatest diversity of Shannon-Wiener index measured in present experiment was observed in weed infested treatment (average comparison by Duncan test).The treatments of Trifluralin herbicide, cultivator and transparent plastic mulch after the weed infested treatment had the highest species diversity.The lowest density of weeds was related to the wheat straw mulch.Most weeds density was counted as 99.1 plants/m 2 of weed infested treatment.The wheat straw mulch deceased weeds density as 84% compared to weed infested.The canola straw mulch also was deceased weeds density as 79% comparing to weed infested.However, weed biomass in the treatments of transparent and black plastic mulch compared to the weed infested treatment had the highest weeds biomass as 48 and 40%, respectively.The lowest weed biomass was observed in canola and wheat mulch by 16 and 18% after the weed infested.It can be conducted that, the use of plant mulches or residues can provide more proper control of weeds compared to the use of herbicide and the use of plant mulches reduces use of herbicides.