We built a website that teaches growers how to control weeds.

Many growers, from home vegetable gardeners to large-scale grain producers, are trying to reduce or eliminate the use of herbicides for controlling weeds. Growing crops without herbicides is information-intensive. It requires the integration of multiple tactics and appropriate timing into an overall strategy that must be informed by the biology of the weeds present in the field. At present, however, systematic treatments of ecological weed management for growers are largely unavailable, and relevant information on the ecology of individual weed species is only available in scientific literature.

We constructed a website (www.css.cornell.edu/weedeco/WeedDatabase/index2.html) that provides basic information on ecological methods of weed control and information on the ecology of weeds. The database has two main parts. A "toolbox" gives: 1) a series of short essays on various aspects of weed ecology that are of use in understanding how to manage weeds and 2) explanations of a wide range of non-chemical weed-control tactics, along with tips on how to use them most effectively. The second main section provides information on the identification (including color photographs), ecology, and management of weeds common in the Northeast. We are currently working on a substantial expansion of this section.

The website received approximately 22,000 hits in 2006, its second year in existence. This was more than twice the usage of 2005. Gardeners and farmers have commented to us that they find it useful. It is also being used by teachers. The farm magazine American Agriculturalist printed an unsolicited and highly favorable review of the site in their December 2004 issue. The website is being used by extension personnel as a source of information for advising growers.

Toward Sustainability Foundation

Antonio DiTommaso (Dept. of Crop and Soil Sciences, Cornell)