Innovasjon for bedre ugresskontroll i grønnsaker

Milestone 1 - Optimize liquids with herbicidal effect, using the innovative ultraprecise drop on demand(DoD) system, with regards physical and biochemical properties and herbicidal effect. Milestone 2 - Test liquid fertilizer, using the innovative ultraprecise drop on demand system, with regards to biochemical properties and herbicidal effect. Milestone 1 and 2 runs in parallel as they are closely connected because it is the shooting of droplets and herbicidal effect that is studied. The challenge for this is that the requirements for the liquid properties changes with leaf type, and how the droplets behave midair. The optimization have consisted of testing to find good compromises with regards to liquid properties. We have had good results and found two solutions we think is going to yield good results. The field trials in May and June 2016 used one of the solutions and showed good results. The same solution was used in field trials in the fall 2017, also with good results. Milestone 3 - Strategy for weeding using the false seedbed and the innovative ultraprecise DoD system in the plant row. False seedbed is a measure used for weeding where the goal is to remove as much of the weeds as possible before the crop is sprouting. The crop will then have a head start on the weed that sprout at a later point. The crop then becomes large compared to the weeds making manual and automatic measures easier to apply than if the crop and weeds are similar in size. It is important that there is a significant amount of time from the seedbed is prepared to the crop is sprouting, that way the weeds get a long time to sprout before treated. For cabbage, the results showed that there is no time gain in increasing the seed depth. For carrots, the sprouting was delayed one and two days respectively for the middle and deepest seeding. Tree trials was conducted in 2015, two in cabbage and one in carrots. In this case it was sufficient to treat the weeds using blanket spraying with glyphosate 2 days after seeding. In carrots the effect on doorweed was poor, this weed is quite resistant to glyphosate. For 2016 we used false seedbed treated in different ways, among others by the weeding robot, these trials looked promising, but due to the weather and pests we did not get any final results. When using false seedbed there is possible to blanket spray with a non selective herbicide before sprouting of the crop. However, by using the robot with the same herbicide the amount of herbicide can be drastically reduced with the same weeding effect as only the weeds are targeted. In 2017 there was no work with the false seedbed, as this was finished in 2016. However the robot was tested in the field. Due to some technical issues the tests was conducted in the fall. The conditions during the tests in the fall resulted in testing the weeding effect of the robot in field, rather than separating weeds and crop. The results from the test shows that the robot efficiently can treat weeds with the DoD technology rather than blanket spraying. Milestone 4 - Mediation Several field days localized to the mentioned counseling units where the participants were informed about the project and results from the trials was discussed have been performed. There has also been several presentations, among other on the ?Gartnerkongressen? in Tønsberg Nov. 12th 2016, ?Mat og Landbruk? Jan 10th 2017 and ?Business for Peace? May. 16th 2017. There was an article in ?innovasjon og forskning? in 2016, mediation in ?Gartneryrket? was done December 2016, and an article for a scientific journal describing some of the results is submitted. For 2017 there has been some field days, demonstrations and mediation about the project/robot in newspapers and on conferences. Some examples are «Teknisk Ukeblad», «Finansavisen», «kursuka til NLR» and the Serum conference at Ås.

Ugress reduserer og ødelegger avling i all jordbruksproduksjon på friland. Effektiv ugresskontroll er avgjørende for avlingsnivå og lønnsomhet for dyrkeren. I radkulturer slik som grønnsaker og mais er ugresskontroll spesielt krevende i selve planteraden. Det er få ugrasmidler tilgjengelig for norske grønnsaksdyrkere og en må regne med ytterligere reduksjon i framtiden. Dette er en nasjonal, så vel som internasjonal trend. I selve planteraden er kostnadskrevende manuell ugrasbekjempelse ofte eneste muligh et. Adigo AS har startet uvikling av en feltrobot som skal kontrollere ugresset i selve planteraden i radkulturer. Det skal skje med en spesielt utviklet intelligent dråpeskyter som skal treffe blader av ugress, og verken jord eller nytteplante. Formålet med omsøkt prosjekt er å optimalisere væsker som dråpeskyteren skal bruke. Prosjektet skal undersøke både godkjente handelspreparat av ugressmidler og alternative væsker. Sistnevnte for at feltroboten på sikt også skal kunne brukes i økologisk produksjon. For å kunne gi dyrkerne bedre metoder for ugresskontroll i grønnsaker med eksisterende utstyr, skal også metoden falsk såbed optimaliseres i omsøkt prosjekt. Forbedret og sikker effekt av falsk såbed er viktig for både økologisk og konvensjonell dyrking. Den mest sentrale FoU-utfordringen er antagelig å finne alternativ væske med tilstrekkelig ugresseffekt. Resultater fra prosjektet vil være svært interessante for grønnsaksdyrkere og FoU-miljø i Norge og ellers. Bioforsk Plantehelse, Norsk Landbruksrådgi ving og gulrot- og kålrotdyrkere deltar sammen med Adigo AS i prosjektet.