Periods of coexistence of weeds with carrot grown with and without black oat straw

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of black oat (Avena strigosa) straw on the period prior to the interference (PPI) of weeds in the 'Alvorada' carrot (Daucus carota) crop. The experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block design, in a 2×5 factorial arrangement, with five replicates. The following two factors were evaluated in the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 crop years: soil cover, with and without 10 Mg ha^-1 black oat straw; and periods of coexistence with weeds – 0, 15, 30, 60, and 120 days after emergence (DAE). To determine the PPI, a loss of 5% in the commercial yield of carrot roots was considered as acceptable. At the end of the crop cycle, straw reduced the total dry mass of weeds by 43.5 and 67.5%, respectively, in the first and second crop years. The PPI of the crops with and without straw was, respectively, 2.0 and 1.5 DAE in the first crop year and 17 and 6.0 DAE in the second. The use of black oat straw increases the PPI for the 'Alvorada' carrot crop.