The Electric Spatula: Killing Weeds with Pulsed Microshocks from a Flat-Plate Electrode

Seeking an easy-to-deploy, energy-efficient, non-herbicide weed control method, we tested a flat-plate electrode to apply pulsed electric microshocks (PMS) to a grass and four broadleaf weed species. The method can be deployed via a hand-held unit or as part of a fully automated system to control es...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Agronomy (Basel) 2023-11, Vol.13 (11), p.2694
Main Authors: Bloomer, Daniel J., Harrington, Kerry C., Ghanizadeh, Hossein, James, Trevor K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
applied energy
Aquatic plants
Biomass
Consumer preferences
Control methods
Discharge
Effectiveness
electric shocks
electric weeding
Electrodes
Energy consumption
Energy efficiency
Herbicide resistance
Herbicides
Laws, regulations and rules
Leaves
Loam soils
nonchemical weed control
Plants
Plants (botany)
robotic weeding
Seedlings
site-specific weed management
Soil surfaces
Soils
Weed control
Weeds
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Summary:Seeking an easy-to-deploy, energy-efficient, non-herbicide weed control method, we tested a flat-plate electrode to apply pulsed electric microshocks (PMS) to a grass and four broadleaf weed species. The method can be deployed via a hand-held unit or as part of a fully automated system to control escape weeds in field crops. The effectiveness of the treatments and the relative energy discharges when applying similar electric doses to the plant leaves or to the plant when pressed to the soil with a flat-plate electrode were compared. The method killed only half of the treated Lolium multiflorum “Winter Star” plants, well below our target rate, but significantly reduced growth rates and indicated that effective treatment of
ISSN:2073-4395
2073-4395
DOI:10.3390/agronomy13112694