Use of Information Technologies for Precision Crop Protection

Abutilon theophrasti (Velvetleaf) is cultivated as a fibre crop in China and Tibet. From there it spread out to the Balkan and the Mediterranean Countries and was introduced to America and Australia by the seddlers. In the US and Canada, it is one of the worst weeds in soybean and cotton. For about ten years, A. theophrasti occurs in Germany, mostly in sugarbeet fields. It is tolerant to most sugarbeet herbicides. One objective of the current studies is to test several mechanical and chemical control strategies in sugarbeet fields and to support advisory services of sugarbeet growers.
To retrace and understand Velvetleaf dispersion in view of preventing a further infestation, genetic (AFLP-Fingerprints), phenotypic and phenological parameters of Velvetleaf plants from old populations in China, Korea, US, Hungary and Czech Republic are compared to those populations newly discovered in Germany. A cluster analysis will be carried out to examine whether the degree of relationship between populations enables an explanation of dispersal paths.