Speaker
Description
Abstract. Weeds compete with crops for essential resources such as water, nutrients, light, and space, which significantly lowers both yield and quality, thereby reducing farmers' income and posing a major challenge in agricultural systems worldwide. Field experiments were carried out from 2022 to 2024 at the “Pluģi” farm, located in the Zemgale region of Latvia (GPS coordinates: N56°33'29.5302'', E23°46'26.04''). The experimental field was characterized by sandy clay soil containing 3.2% organic matter, pHKCl of 7.2 and nutrient levels of 194 mg kg-¹ phosphorus and 161 mg kg-¹ potassium. The objective of this study was to evaluate the dynamics of weed species over a three-year period within the plantation rows of four common raspberry cultivars (‘Polana’, ‘Shahrazada’, ‘Norna’ and ‘Daiga’). Weed surveys were conducted three times each year during the growing season, using the counting method. In this study we observed that the highest number of weed species was recorded in 2022 in the ‘Daiga’ plantation (19 species), whereas the lowest was observed in 2023 in ‘Daiga’ and in 2024 in the ‘Polana’ and ‘Norna’ plantations (13 species). The dominant monocotyledonous species were Poa annua and Elytrigia repens, with the highest average densities recorded for Poa annua in 2024 in the ‘Polana’ plantation and for Elytrigia repens in 2022 in the ‘Shahrazada’ plantation. The lowest Shannon diversity index (H′ = 0.07) for annual weeds was calculated in 2024 in the ‘Polana’ plantation, while the highest value (H′ = 1.66) for perennial weeds was recorded in 2023 in the same plantation.