The more intensive tillage methods tested (rotary tiller, disc harrow, stubble harrow) did not provide significantly better perennial weed control than the horizontal root cutter. Treatments with the vertical root cutter had 40% less E. repens and 22% less S. arvensis shoot biomass than treatments without the vertical root cutter.
It is essential to reduce pesticide and tillage use in agricultural systems, but better alternatives for controlling perennial weeds are needed. The horizontal and vertical root cutters can fragment the roots and rhizomes of perennial weeds with minimal disturbance to the soil and vegetation cover. However, there is a lack of studies on how the root cutters affect multiple perennial weed species, and their effect on soil and nutrient losses.
To fill this gap, three multi-year experiments in plowed systems were conducted in Norway and Sweden to study whether the roots cutters can control multiple perennial weed species as effectively as more intensive tillage methods (Experiments 1-2), without increasing soil and nutrient losses (Experiment 3).