About this Research Topic

Background

Specialty crops are unique high-value commodities, often grown on smaller acreages compared to grain, fiber, and forage crops. Examples include fruits and vegetables, nuts, herbs, and ornamentals. These crops can be grown for fresh market sales, processing, use as value-added products, or aesthetics. The sale of specialty crops can provide significant economic returns to growers and may also serve as critical components of larger agricultural economies. Many specialty crops are grown as dietary staples and can have historical, cultural, or religious significance to many communities.

Weeds are a significant threat to the production of specialty crops through direct, competitive interactions for shared resources. Weeds can also interfere with specialty crop production, indirectly, by serving as alternate hosts for pests and pathogens, impeding other crop management operations, and reducing harvest efficiency. Certain weed species can cause physical harm to laborers thru the production of thorns, spines, or chemicals that can elicit inflammatory responses. Weed control in specialty crops can be difficult for several reasons, including the limited number of herbicide options, crop sensitivity to available chemistries, the narrow spectrums of control of registered products, and the cost and availability of labor.

The Topic Editors welcome research articles directly related to specialty crop weed control including the following subtopics, but not limited to:
• Crop-weed competition
• The evolution and management of herbicide resistance in specialty crops
• Novel technologies or tactics for weed control in specialty crops
• The identification and control of emerging weed pests
• The evaluation of tools and practices for weed suppression in under-investigated or under-utilized crops
• System approaches to weed control, impacts of weeds and weed control on soil health parameters
• Anaerobic soil disinfestation and cover cropping for weed control
• Weed management in urban agricultural or horticultural environments.

Keywords: Weed management, Specialty crops, Weeds, Minor use crops, Fruit crops, Vegetable crops, Ornamental Crops

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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