Organic: Weed Control

Abbreviations used below are: N=non-technical text or presentation, T=technical text or presentation, G=guide, explains "how-to" in the text or presentation, R=reference, charts, easy to look up information, O=describes organic practices, C=describes conventional/non-organic practices, +=a free publication that is highly recommended, *=our choice for the best publication to buy if you can only get one title in this section. While an item might refer to non-organic practices for fertility or pest management, the other information provided is applicable to organic production, and that is why the item is included.

*Tim R. Murphy. 1997. Weeds of southern turfgrasses. University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service (soft cover, 208 pp., US$8.00, call 706-542-8999 to order). This is an excellent manual which has color photographs and descriptions of weeds found in turfgrass as well as other crops. [N R]

+Georgia Cooperative Extension Service. 1980. Common weed seedlings of the United States and Canada. Mississippi State University Extension Service, P-1254 (soft cover, 31 pp., free). This is a short manual showing color pictures and descriptions of weeds in their seedling stage. [N R]

Weeds of the north central states. North Central Regional Research Publication No. 281 or Bulletin 772 of University of Illinois. This book contains excellent line drawings of the various weeds and numerous keys for identifying weeds. [N R]

Vern Grubinger and Mary Jane Else. 1996. Vegetable farmers and their weed-control machines, an educational video on cultivation and flaming equipment. The University of Vermont, Center for Sustainable Agriculture (VHS, 75 min., US$12.00, call 802-656-0037 to order). This is an excellent video presentation of many cultivating implements. Both home-made and commercially available implements are included. For each implement, there is footage on setup, operation, and close-ups during operation. [N G O]

Greg Bowman, editor. 1997. Steel in the field, a farmer's guide to weed management tools. USDA Sustainable Agriculture Network, ISBN 188862602X (soft cover, 128 pp., US$18.00, call 802-656-0471 to order). The publishers indicate that the book presents "practical details on how to choose and use weed-control implements" with illustrations of "37 types of tools and 18 accessories". The book also includes supplier contacts, tool price ranges, and resource lists.

Robin Bellinder and Jed Colquhoun. New tools for mechanical weed control in vegetables. Department of Fruit and Vegetable Science, Cornell University (VHS, US$7.00). This is a short video presentation of many cultivating implements. The video concludes with a listing of sources of the implements used. [N G O]

R. J. Aldrich. 1984. Weed crop ecology, principles in weed management. Breton Publishers, ISBN 0534028330 (hard cover, 465 pp., US$47.25). A very good weed science textbook that does not emphasize herbicides. [T G O C]