Vol. 15—1961 - NorthEastern Weed Science Society

319.
THE EFFECTS OF CHEMICALAND CULTURALTREATMENTSON THE FOODRESERVESOF
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QUACKGRASSRHIZOMES
INTRODUCTION
Homer H. LeBaron and S. N. ferttg
The primary factors which contribute toward making quackgrass one of
our most noxious weeds of cultivated land are the ability of its mass of
branching underground stems to maintain itself as a perennial weed and the
fact that every joint of the rhizome is capable of producing new growth.
Thus it is obvious that methods of control or eradication of quackgrass
must be concerned primarily with the rhizomes.
In view of the great amount of interest and effort that has been
extended to the control of thiS pest, it is somewhat surprising that few
studies have been made on the rhizomes themselve~. Of those reports in
which the effects of treatments on the rhizomes have been investigated,
relatively few are applicable to modern methods of quackgrass control.
Thus, a more complete knowledge of the physiology of the quackgrass rhizome
and the effects of modern control recommendations on its survival and growth
would be very beneficial in aiding future ~nvestigat1ons and in the interpretation
of results. . .
The basic purpose and objectives of this investigation have been
pointed out ( I ), and are based on the assumption that control or
eradication of quackgrass is inti~tely associated wit~ th~ depletion of
its food reserves and the destruction of its perennial 'organs.
MATERIALSANDMETHODS
This experiment was carried out with a uniform stand of quackgr@ss on a
Mardin silt loam soil at the Mount Pleasant Agronomy Research Farm near
Ithaca, N.Y. The area had been in sod the previo~s year and was largely
taken over by quackgrass. .
Although thiS study was a continuation of ~he 1957-59 experiment
(1 ), it was enlarged to include several additional herbicides which
had shown promising results for the control of quackgrass in other trials
during' .the 1958 season~ -.· Because of very poor results obtained fn the, first
experfment with chlorinated benzoic acid,' it was not investigated tUtther.
The factor of nitrogen differential was also not continued because"bf.its
relatively minor:effe~t in the first experiment. Since only fallo~':~rtd
spring plOWing acc~anied by spring chemicals continued to result.':l.n: "lower
levels of underground food reserve and satisfactory control throughout the
2
IThis includes
part of the work done on the Ph.D. study at Cornell University.
2plant Physiologist, Virginia Truck Experiment Station, Norfolk, Va. and
Professor of Agronomy, Cornell University. Ithaca. N.Y., respectively.