Weeds are also plants. The crops planted in the field are also plants so how can we differentiate a weed from a crop?

Weeds are found on land where the native vegetation has been replaced by a controlled system of cropping management. It is man who has forcibly altered the vegetation for other purposes mainly for agriculture. Crops, on the other hand, are plant that fit economically into the scheme of man’s work and existence. These plants are being managed to a certain degree. A plant species become a crop because man developed it to be a crop.

In the early days, weeds were not considered as pests in the field since: a) damage caused by weeds are not visible as those caused by insects and plant pathogens, b) crops are always associated with weeds, c) it is easier to see insects with crops than weeds, d) and there is seldom total crop failure due to weeds.

Damage of weeds to crops is not visible compared to insects that result to feeding trails and to diseases causing lesions and necrosis. When there is a crop, there is always a weed. That is why weeds were not considered as a threat to crop production. Sometimes, weeds look like crops so it is difficult to spot weeds in a heavily planted field. Unlike pests which are very noticeable in the field. Crop failure is less likely attributed to weed competition and there is seldom crop failure. These are some of the reasons why weeds were not regarded as pests before. At present, the direct and indirect contributions of weeds in crop failure have made it one of the pests considered in the field.

Monocropping is said to be an unecological and unstable practice and is very prone to pest outbreak. Monocropping is a system that there is a single crop planted on the whole field for the purpose of more harvest and lesser work. This system is very popular in many parts of the world mainly for staple food crops and for export products as well as for the industry.

The problem of monocropping is that the field is more likely to experience high disease and pest incidence. This is due to the fact that in monocropping, there is a lot of supply of food favoring growth and reproduction of pests. Since pests are host specific, expect that pest population will increase at a high rate. In effect, the farmer needs to spray lots of pesticides on his field to prevent outbreaks. This practice is very unecological and unstable since pesticides can also kill the beneficial insects in the field.

Increasing diversity in farm therefore can help in decreasing pest population. Understanding some ideas on diversity can help us how to improve diversity in the farm.

Predators are polyphagous and have a very broad habitat requirements. Therefore, if there are more predators in the field, there are more natural agents that can control the pest population. A more diverse system can have more predators and therefore more pest control agents.

Monocropping provides abundant and concentrated resources as well as a homogeneous physical condition. As discussed earlier, monocropping can promote high levels of pest incidence and less predators. You can therefore use different varieties of the crop as this can increase diversity in farm. Since pests are host specific, it is recommended to plant local and adapted varieties of the crop together with hybrid varieties to ensure a stable harvest at the end of the season.

Spacing and Row Orientation can also contribute to diversity in farm. There are crops that are generally planted in 20×20 cm orientation for effective farm implement utilization and maintenance of the field. A more effective orientation of crop row and spacing is doing it in a 40×10 cm manner. This type of orientation results to more microenvironment in the field. It has less shading in the inter rows and is less humid. This results to lower pest population since predators are likely to occur in the field. Studies have also showed that an east-west direction of rows can increase yield by 10-12% and can decrease pest incidence better.

Planting trap crops not only increases diversity but it can also reduce pest attack significantly. Plant crops are planted to attract pests are they are more preferred by pests than the main crop. An example of a trap crop is corn to trap cottonball worms if your main crop is cotton and tomato to trap nematodes attacking pineapples.

Tags: diversity, monocropping, Pest Control, pest incidence

Rice bug is a significant insect pest in a rice field. It can reduce the total yield by 30% during harvest if not given attention by farmers. The insect feeds on rice at the milking stage (30-35 days after planting depending on the rice variety) of the plant leaving empty rice grains during harvest. Thus the reduce in the total yield.

A cheaper cultural method of controlling rice bug practiced by some farmers all over the Philippines is by dipping a cloth to a female urine and place it in sticks or poles placed in the boundaries of the field. The urine should come from a female who has already undergone menstruation or if she is already in her menstruation period. Farmers recommended using a wife’s urine as it is more effective than using an unmarried woman’s urine. Still, the latter’s urine can be used as long as she is already in puberty.

The reason for this is that male rice bugs are attracted to the female hormones secreted by the female rice bags. This hormone is similar to the human female hormone, thus, the male hormones will be attracted to the cloth (dipped in the female urine and stuck on a stick or pole) that you have placed in the boundaries of the field. By daytime, the male rice bugs will be gathered around these traps and you can manually kill the male rice bugs. Without the male rice bugs, there wont be any agents to fertilize the female rice bugs. Thus, the rice bug population will be reduced and that you don’t have to spend on additional costs for pesticide application. I hope this information helps.

Tags: rice, rice bug

I got this interesting post from Yami No Matsuei’s Hangout

This is a picture of a Colocasia esculenta i took at our backyard. It grew so big that i have to cut it down and feast on its edible part, its root! We call it “gabi” in our native language and it is hig in carbohydrates. It is an ingredient in what is popularly known here in the Philippines as “nilaga”.

This plant stayed in our backyard for almost 5 months already so it grew this big. As you can see, the place where it is planted is composed of dried leaves and the like. This caused an increase in the Organic Matter content of the soil, thus favoring the growth of the gabi.

Since high Organic Matter in the soil can promote favorable growth for plants, this is likely to happen. Without any addition of inorganic or commercial fertilizers, this plant was able to grow this big. If we are to look at it, it is really possible to grow healthy plants without the addition of inorganic fertilizer.

Tags: Colocasia esculenta

Pest sampling is very important if you plan of controlling pest populations in the future. This article from Yami No Matsuei’s Hangout gives us some tips on how to do a good sampling.

Sampling is the process of selecting units from a population. The sample is studied and generalization is made to the population based on the results of the sample. The characteristics of a good sample are
(a) it should be large enough to cover or represent the population;

(b) it should be reliable. It is important because of the following reasons:
(i) population of pest is too large (ii) low cost

(c) time consideration and

(d) area covered is too large.

In developing a sound crop protection program, the proper pest sampling and damage assessment is essential and also some important information about the components of agroecosystem. The implementation of a management tactics relates to the prevention of commodity loss since the management tactic was implemented at the appropriate time based on good estimates of pest damage potential and as well as pest densities. There are two general methods of sampling in the field; the first one is direct sampling, the direct sampling of pest from the host plant on in the environment and the second method is the indirect wherein the account of the damage of the pest is considered.

Tags: Pest Sampling