Author
 |
Teasdale, John |
|
Submitted to: Encyclopedia of Pest Management
Publication Type: Book / Chapter Publication Acceptance Date: 1/13/2000 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Many approaches can be taken for managing cropping systems to reduce weed and pest populations. Living mulches are plants grown in mixture with a cash crop that can profoundly influence pest populations and pest management requirements. This paper is an invited review of living mulch influences on weed, disease, and insect populations for a comprehensive Encyclopedia of Pest Management being compiled by David Pimentel. Technical Abstract: Living mulches are plants grown in mixture with a cash crop. They are not grown for harvest or direct profit but, instead, to provide ecological benefits including protecting soils from erosion, improving soil fertility, providing traffic lanes, suppressing weeds, and reducing pest populations. Low growing legumes and grasses are typically used for this purpose. Established living mulches protect crop plants by forming a barrier to pest and weed organisms originating in soils. Living mulches also create a more diverse community that can reduce insect pest levels by attracting natural enemies of pests or by creating an environment that is more difficult for pests to find and grow on crop plants. Competition between living mulch and crop plants for water and nutrients which often leads to lower crop yield is the major constraint on using living mulches. Creative management approaches are required to alleviate the detrimental effect of living mulches on crops while enhancing the benefits to pest and soil management. |
