Weed response and crop growth in winter wheat-lucerne intercropping: A comparison of conventional and reduced soil-tillage conditions in northern France

Conventional tillage; Conventional tillage + living mulch; Reduced tillage; reduced tillage + living mulch

The present study therefore aimed to evaluate changes in wheat growth and locally prevailing weed communities at species and functional levels, brought about by: (i) the effect of soil tillage, comparing conventional with reduced tillage, in the absence of living mulch; (ii) the effect of living mulch, comparing soil-tillage treatments with and without living mulch; and (iii) the effect of cover-crop control by chemicals, comparing different herbicide strategies (none, early, late application) on living-mulch treatments.

Intercropping wheat-alfalfa + reduced tillage/ploughing + no/early/late herbicide