Study

Regulation of Urtica dioica L. on grasslands

  • Published source details Vozár L., Jančovič J. & Bačová S. (2009) Regulation of Urtica dioica L. on grasslands. Alternative Functions of Grassland. Proceedings of the 15th European Grassland Federation Symposium, 7-9 September 2009, Brno, Czech Republic, Vol. 14, 559-562.

Actions

This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

Action Category

Grow plants that compete with damaging weeds

Action Link
Natural Pest Control
  1. Grow plants that compete with damaging weeds

    A controlled study in 2004-2008 in pasture land in the Strážov Hills, Slovakia (Vozár et al. 2009) found that the proportion of pasture covered by stinging nettles Urtica dioica was reduced by 91% after one season of cutting and reseeding with cock's foot Dactylis glomerata and white clover Trifolium repens. Cutting without reseeding reduced stinging nettle cover by 70% if cuttings were left as a mulch, or by 51% if cuttings were removed. Stinging nettles increased by 11% in an uncut and unseeded treatment. By the end of year five of the study, stinging nettles were rare in the cut and reseeded treatment, covered 1-2% of the pasture in the cut, unseeded treatments and covered 93% of the pasture in the uncut, unseeded treatment. Grass cover in the cut and reseeded plots was 84% by the end of the second year and remained between 68-92% for the rest of the experiment, compared to 3.7-43% in the cut, unseeded treatments and 0.3-6% in the uncut, unseeded treatment. Cut plots were cut every fifth week, starting when the ground cover was 250-300 mm high. The paper gives no further details of the study setup.

     

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