Effect of Dry Heat, Direct Flame, and Straw Burning on Seed Germination of Weed Species Found in Lowbush Blueberry Fields

Abstract

Experiments were conducted to determine the effects of dry heat, direct flame, and straw burning on germination of several weed species from lowbush blueberry fields. Dry heat experiments were designed as factorial arrangements of temperature (100, 200, and 300 C in experiment 1 and room temperature, 100, 200, and 300 C in experiment 2) and exposure time (0, 5, 10, 20, 40, and 80 s in experiment 1 and 2, 5, 10, and 20 s in experiment 2) to determine the exposure time required to reduce germination for each temperature. Susceptibility to dry heat varied across species tested, but germination of spreading dogbane, meadow salsify, fireweed, and hair fescue seeds collected from lowbush blueberry fields in Nova Scotia, Canada generally declined exponentially as a function of duration of heat exposure at the temperatures tested. Germination decreased more rapidly at higher temperatures in all species, although the duration of heat exposure required to reduce germination by 50 and 90% varied across temperatures and species. Exposure of seeds to direct flame rapidly reduced germination, with less than 1 s of exposure required to reduce seed germination of witchgrass, spreading dogbane, and meadow salsify by > 90%. Straw burning did not consistently reduce germination of hair fescue or winter bentgrass, indicating that a surface burn occurring above weed seeds may not be consistently effective at reducing seed viability. These results provide important estimates of the temperature and exposure times required to reduce viability of weed seeds in lowbush blueberry fields and suggest that thermal technologies that expose weed seeds to direct flame will be the most consistent in reducing seed viability.