WEED PREVALENCE IN ONION AND POTATO CROPS DURING 2024

Onion (Allium cepa L.) is one of the most commonly used vegetable crops for human consumption. To control weeds in onion crops, herbicides are used with a pre-emergence application time for crops and weeds (PRE-EM herbicides), as well as those with a post-emergence application time for crops and weeds (POST-EM herbicides). Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) are grown on an area of 25 million hectares worldwide. About 70% of the area under potatoes is in Europe, where 80% of the total production is produced. Field research on the floristic composition of weeds was conducted during May 2024 in onion and potato crops at three different locations. In onion and potato crops, 17 weed species belonging to 12 families were identified during field research in 2024. The aim of the work is to determine the dominant weed species in these vegetable crops that limit the production and yield of these crops. The analysis determined that the most common weeds present in onion and potato crops are the following: Abutilon theophrasti, Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Chenopodium album, Datura stramonium, Sorghum halepense. Thus, the analysis of the total biological spectrum in the studied area indicates the dominance of annual plants from the therophyte category 70.58% (12 species), among which the most abundant are T4 therophytes with 47.06% (8 species) that germinate in spring, and the seeds ripen in late summer. In the analyzed weed flora, as many as five plants (29.41%) have the status of intensive, namely: Abutilon theophrasti, Amaranthus retroflexus, Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Polygonum lapathifolium and Sorghum halepense.