Perennial forage legume cultivation and their above-ground mass management methods for weed suppression in arable organic cropping systems

Chemical and Biological Technologies in Agriculture

Table 5 The effect of perennial forage legumes and their above-ground biomass management methods on the weed density and dry weight, Experiment II

Treatments	Weeds						Forage legumes and the mixture with festulolium
	Perennial swards growth stage (BBCH)						Yield kg ha⁻¹		Mass of mulch kg ha⁻¹	Applied N with mulch kg ha⁻¹
	27				61
	Density plants m⁻²			Density plants m⁻²	Weight gm⁻² DM
Perennial legume and legume- grasses
Fs (control)	30		47			8.1	4728	2030			28.6
RC	24		56			12.8	7866**	4072			131.6
Fs + RC	24		55			7.7	8134**	3979			106.8
L	39**		84*			14.5	7293**	3754			129.7
L + Fs	31		56			5.9	8013**	3836			103.7
Statistics of ANOVA (p)	< 0.01		< 0.05			< 0.01	< 0.01	–			–
Management methods of above-ground biomass
Removal from field (control)		30	45			11.0	7100	0			0.0
Mixed		31	61			7.3	7945**	4028			115.4
Mulching		29	72**			11.1	6575	6575			184.9
Statistics of ANOVA (p)		n.s	< 0.01			< 0.01	< 0.01	–			–

Fs festulolium, RC red clover, L Lucerne, RC + Fs mixture of red clover and festulolium, L + Fs mixture lucerne and festulolium; Values in italic and followed by * or ** are significantly different than the control according to other variant at p < 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively. n.s. indicate significant differences; value in brackets indicate standard error