ABSTRACT
A weed is a plant of any kind that is growing in the wrong place: groundsel smothering lettuce, moss covering a lawn, last year’s potatoes emerging in a plot of cabbage, rose suckers spoiling a herbaceous border. Damage caused by weeds may be categorized into seven main areas:
1 Competition between the weed and the plant for water, nutrients and light may prove favourable to the weed if it is able to establish itself quickly. The plants are therefore deprived of their major requirement and poor growth results. The extent of this competition is largely unpredictable, varying with climatic factors such as temperature and rainfall, soil factors such as
soil type and cultural factors such as cultivation method, plant spacing and quality of weed control in previous seasons. Large numbers of weed seed may be introduced into a plot in poor quality composts or farmyard manure. The uncontrolled proliferation of weeds will inevitably produce serious plant losses.
