Integrated Weed Management in Saffron (Crocus sativus)

Saffron (Crocus sativus) is the world’s most expensive spice, and a poor competitor of weeds. It grows very slowly and is a short-statured crop. So, dense weed growth at any stage of crop growth will have an adverse effect not only on its yield but on quality of the produce as well. The major weeds normally infest a saffron crop are hoary cress (Cardaria draba), downy brome (Bromus tectorum), bulbous blue grass (Poa bulbosa), hare barley wild barley (Hordeum spontaneum), redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus) and Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense). Manual weeding and herbicide application are the two dominant approaches in controlling established weeds in saffron. But in terms of expenditure manual weeding is costly and time-consuming. Herbicide application is also a costly and non-ecologically sound method of weed control. The necessity of moving toward healthier environment and sustainable agriculture forces us to reduce herbicide application as much as possible. So in terms of integrated weed management (IWM) more attention should be paid to non-chemical weed control methods particularly physical, mechanical and crop-based approaches. But not much information is available on the efficiency of these non-chemical methods of weed control in saffron. So we decided to investigate these approaches of weed control in saffron that can be used for effective weed management while keeping environment safe.

Keywords:

allelopathy , ecologically-sound approaches , fallow , mulch , weed control