Author(s)

Gena R. Mahato¹, Anna McClung², Sixte Ntamatungiro¹, Surendra Singh³, Meghnath Pokharel⁴, Vince Wiley¹, Bihu Huang^1*

¹Department of Agriculture, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Pine Bluff, USA.
²Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center, Stuttgart, USA.
³University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA.
⁴Kansas State University, Manhattan, USA.

The experiment site at UAPB agronomy farm was left undisturbed for several years for organic rice experiment. Soil samples taken in September 2015 showed that the experiment site was deficient with plant nutrients (NPK). Therefore, an organic fertilizer, Nature (8-5-5) was applied before planting mixture of crimson clover and winter wheat as cover crop in fall 2015. Biomass samples taken from the cover cropped land (CCL) and fallow land (FL) resulted in decrease in weed biomass by 33.36% and increase in total biomass by 46.78% in CCL than FL. Cover crops were incorporated one month before the rice sowing in June 2016. Fifteen rice cultivars were experimented for weed competition under water seeding cultivation method. Water seeding method was not effective to control the weeds as weeds dominated most of the rice plots since seedling stage. However, two rice cultivars namely Jasmine 85 and Rondo showed strong weed competition due to higher plant stand and better seedling establishment.

Organic Farming, Water Seeding, Flooding, Plastic Mulch Covering, Weed Pressure, Varietal Selection, Biomass

Mahato, G. , McClung, A. , Ntamatungiro, S. , Singh, S. , Pokharel, M. , Wiley, V. and Huang, B. (2017) Preliminary Trial of Cover Cropping and Weed Control for Organic Rice. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 8, 2758-2768. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2017.811186.