Plants communicate with light signals, affect crop yield: Who knew?

Mar 14, 2023

All might look quiet on the agricultural front, but in the war between weeds and crops, weeds are winning.

A new theory developed by University of Guelph researcher Clarence Swanton, suggests weeds can alter crop plant growth by affecting light signals used by crop plants to communicate.

“This in itself, is revolutionary,” said Swanton, a weed scientist in the Department of Plant Agriculture at the Ontario Agricultural College.

“This whole basis of our research begins with the fact that plants are able to communicate."

Weeds are resilient, adaptable and can damage crop yields. But Swanton says altering crop plants’ light signals so they are more tolerant to weeds may increase the yield curve.

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Video: A chain harrow is a game changer

Utilizing a rotational grazing method on our farmstead with our sheep helps to let the pasture/paddocks rest. We also just invested in a chain harrow to allow us to drag the paddocks our sheep just left to break up and spread their manure around, dethatch thicker grass areas, and to rough up bare dirt areas to all for a better seed to soil contact if we overseed that paddock. This was our first time really using the chain harrow besides initially testing it out. We are very impressed with the work it did and how and area that was majority dirt, could be roughed up before reseeding.

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