Weed Management

Pre-sowing weed control is critical, especially for grasses. Post-emergence, camelina competes well with weeds if well-established. Winter Camelina tends to establish well in the fall and then out perfoms weeds in the spring. Spring Camelina as a main crop will potential suffer from more weed competition.

Conventional Control

• Pre-Sowing: Ensure fields are clear of weeds. Use herbicides if needed before sowing to minimize weed competition. Camelina is a new crop so you will need to check which chemicals are approved in your country.
• Post-Emergence: In cases of strong grass weed regrowth, use approved herbicides such as fluazifop-p-butyl or clethodim. Apply any necessary herbicides before the stem elongation stage to avoid yield losses.

Biologic Control

• Pre-Sowing: Seed into clean field to keep competition to a minimum is paramount. Paricular prolems are competition from grass or self seeded cereals from previous crop. Using appropriate mechanical culitvation for the type of weeds and soil is critcal to have a clean field for seeding.
• Post-Emergence: Camelina can be tined weeded easily due to its tap root. Other types of mechanical weeding should be no problem with Camelina since it is a crop with a lot of plasticity. Increasing seeding rates did not have an effect on weed supression.

Pests, and Disease Control

Camelina is highly resistant to pests and diseases. However, late-stage mildew can occur, though it typically doesn’t affect yields.

Pests: Camelina is rarely attacked by common pests such as flea beetles or seed weevils more common in rape or canola. Rarely are pesitcides needed with camelina leading to its appeal.

• Diseases: Fungicide applications are usually unnecessary. However, if downy mildew occurs late in the season, it has been shown to have a large impact on yield LeClerc 2021. Fungicides like azoxystrobin may be used if mildew appears before the rosette stage. There are other diseases that can effect Camelina such as aster yellows, club root, and white rust, so be aware if these are common diseases in your region.