Influence of different soil management practices on ground-flora vegetation in an almond orchard

no-tillage, post-emergence herbicides, mowing of natural weed flora, cover cropping with faba bean, and conventional soil tillage.

This paper reports a survey on the weed flora and seed bank in an almond orchard sited in Apulia region (Southern Italy), where the following soil management practices have been compared for over 30 yrs: no-tillage, keeping the soil totally weed-free throughout the year by using pre-emergence herbicides to prevent plant emergence or post-emergence herbicides in case of weeds already emerged; no-tillage, with post-emergence herbicides; no-tillage, with mowing of natural weed flora in spring; cover cropping, with faba bean sown in November and green manured in springtime; conventional soil tillage.