Tuesday, November 14, 2006 - 3:15 PM
150-8

Restoring Impacted Research Land for Succeeding Projects.

S.T. Cockerham, W.G. Stapleton, D.O. Bowles, S.B. Ries, T.O. Ortega, and S.S. Lee. University of California, Agricultural Operations, 1060 Martin Luther King Blvd, Riverside, CA 92507

Experiment station land use requires that research plots be reclaimed for succeeding studies. Issues that must be dealt with include: herbicide residual; plant nutrient residual; left over infrastructure; and tree, vine, and shrub removal. Weeds that have been allowed to become excessive, due to specific project requirements, must be removed chemically and mechanically to reduce the weed seed bank. Crops that go to seed become weeds for plot work. Plot site restoration has included removal of hardware, establishment of a cover/indicator crop, taking out of production for lay-by to reduce diseases and nematodes, tilling to eliminate differential plot characteristics, and crop destruction. Time required for plot restoration is often long term and may include repeated cropping with turning under as green manure. Activated charcoal has been used successfully to adsorb herbicide residues. Records of plot design characteristics are important for future researchers.