Electrical weeding is an emerging practice for late-season weed control that is being adopted in numerous cropping systems and agricultural industries, including Michigan vegetable production. However, little scientific research has been conducted directly evaluating the performance of electrical weeding and its effects on the agroecosystem. The objectives of the research program were to investigate electrical weeding in terms of 1) weed control, 2) crop injury, 3) economic viability, as well as its effects on 4) weed seed germinability and 5) rhizosphere microbial communities. Field trials at Hart, MI in 2021 and 2022 investigated these research objectives in conventional carrot and organic green bean production systems. Late-season weed control methods including one hand-weeding event (HW), one electrical weeder pass (1P), two electrical weeder passes performed consecutively [2P(ST)], one pass followed by one pass after a 14-day interval [2P(14d)], two passes followed by one pass after a 14-day interval (3P), and no late-season control (NLC) were evaluated in both carrot and green beans. Early-season weed control methods [low, medium, and intensive herbicide programs, weed-free, and no early-season control (NEC)] were also included in the carrot trials in order to produce different weed densities within which to assess the performance of the late-season weed control methods. In carrot, use of the intensive herbicide program typically led to lower densities of above-canopy redroot pigweed compared to NEC or the low herbicide program. There was no difference reported in redroot pigweed control with respect to early-season weed control methods after performing the various late-season weed control methods in 2021. However, in 2022, redroot pigweed control tended to be higher for treatments that caused initially lower weed densities (weed-free and intensive herbicide program). Increasing passes above 2P(ST) did not provide any higher control of redroot pigweed in carrot, while 3P did have higher weed control in green beans. Foliar injury did not exceed 10% in carrot and 20% for green beans. Electrical weeding did not cause any internal damage to carrot root tissue or have any effect on carrot root length. Hand weeding was correlated with a yield increase in 2022, whereas none of the electrical treatments led to any difference in yield in either year that was not related to natural variation in weed pressure. For green beans, neither electrical weeding nor hand weeding led to a yield difference in both years. Hand weeding had a significantly higher cost acre-1 than all electrical treatments in both years (19.6 and 28.4 times higher than 1P in carrot and green bean, respectively) due to the greater amount of time required. The range of time and cost acre-1 observed relates to the differences in weed pressure, where fields with higher weed competition requiring longer hand and electrical weeding times. Electrical weed control was found to significantly reduce redroot pigweed seed germination in 2021 (10 to 14%) but not in 2022. However, germination did not differ between early- or late season weed control methods in either year. Electrical weeding did not generally lead to differences in NH4+ or NO3- that would indicate changes in N mineralization in the rhizosphere. Microbial biomass C was higher after 1P than NLC in 2021. Apart from this, there were no differences in microbial biomass C or N reported with respect to early-season or late-season weed control methods in either year. Informed by the experimental results, growers can make more pragmatic decisions around investing in electrical weeding equipment based on its weed control performance, risk of crop injury, and economic feasibility compared with alternative late-season control practices. As well, electrical weeding has the potential to be an effective integrated weed management solution in vegetable production for control of the weed seedbank with little to no significant impacts on rhizosphere microbial communities.
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