Soil disinfestation is a widespread practice used before planting of high-value crops in horticulture, breeding and floriculture, where it is necessary to control soil-borne diseases, in particular pathogenic fungi and weed seeds. Methyl bromide (MB), has been the main fumigant used for disinfestation for several decades. It was gradually banned since 1994, following the Montreal protocol. Many studies were conducted to find sustainable alternative techniques to MB. Water steam has been employed largely in the past and abandoned for less expensive chemical products. Nowadays it is considered an ecological technique and may represent a valid alternative to MB. This work is aimed at estimating the gross income in lettuce production by adopting three weed control strategies: use of herbicides, mulching and soil steaming. The study was conducted in parallel to an evaluation of the herbicidal efficacy on weed seeds of a sub-superficial steam application for soil disinfestation. The lettuce production process was divided in seven phases: pre-transplant, transplant, fertilization, herbicide and fungicides treatments and foliar fertilization, irrigation, harvest and post harvest operations. In each phase the costs of cultural operations were estimated by considering several factors, including the labour, the inputs (e.g. kind, amount, unit and total cost of fertilizers, herbicides, etc.), and fuel and lubricants of the machines used. The gross incomes of the three weed control strategies were calculated as a difference of gross marketable production and variable production costs. Considering three cycles of lettuce per year and only one soil steaming treatment per year (carried out before the first cycle), no relevant differences were found across the three incomes. In particular, the total variable costs averaged 25657, 26767 and 27023 €/ha/year with the use of herbicides, mulching and soil steaming, respectively. The cost of soil steaming was estimated as 2112 €/ha year.
Cost comparison between soil steaming and conventional methods for weed control
VIDOTTO, Francesco;LETEY, MARILISA;DE PALO, FERNANDO;MANCUSO, Teresina
2011-01-01
Abstract
Soil disinfestation is a widespread practice used before planting of high-value crops in horticulture, breeding and floriculture, where it is necessary to control soil-borne diseases, in particular pathogenic fungi and weed seeds. Methyl bromide (MB), has been the main fumigant used for disinfestation for several decades. It was gradually banned since 1994, following the Montreal protocol. Many studies were conducted to find sustainable alternative techniques to MB. Water steam has been employed largely in the past and abandoned for less expensive chemical products. Nowadays it is considered an ecological technique and may represent a valid alternative to MB. This work is aimed at estimating the gross income in lettuce production by adopting three weed control strategies: use of herbicides, mulching and soil steaming. The study was conducted in parallel to an evaluation of the herbicidal efficacy on weed seeds of a sub-superficial steam application for soil disinfestation. The lettuce production process was divided in seven phases: pre-transplant, transplant, fertilization, herbicide and fungicides treatments and foliar fertilization, irrigation, harvest and post harvest operations. In each phase the costs of cultural operations were estimated by considering several factors, including the labour, the inputs (e.g. kind, amount, unit and total cost of fertilizers, herbicides, etc.), and fuel and lubricants of the machines used. The gross incomes of the three weed control strategies were calculated as a difference of gross marketable production and variable production costs. Considering three cycles of lettuce per year and only one soil steaming treatment per year (carried out before the first cycle), no relevant differences were found across the three incomes. In particular, the total variable costs averaged 25657, 26767 and 27023 €/ha/year with the use of herbicides, mulching and soil steaming, respectively. The cost of soil steaming was estimated as 2112 €/ha year.
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