Japanese brome (
Bromus japonicus Houtt.) is a winter
annual weed commonly found in the wheat (
Triticum aestivum
L.) fields of China. It is prevalent in northern
China and produces obvious wheat yield losses.
Information on the interference of Japanese brome on
wheat density and its economic threshold (ET) is unknown;
this information is useful to manage Japanese brome. Twoyear
field experiments were designed to determine the ET
of Japanese brome in wheat. The dry weight of Japanese
brome with a density of 320 plants m
-2 was similar to the
‘natural weeds including Japanese brome’ treatments and
higher than other Japanese brome densities, except for the
640 plants m
-2 density which had the highest weed dry
weight and yield loss. In the absence of Japanese brome,
natural weed infestation was less competitive. The ET
of Japanese brome in wheat was between 4 and 5 plants
m
-2 with 80% efficiency for the herbicide flucarbazone.
It predicted that 4 plants m
-2 of Japanese brome can
cause 2.11% to 2.24% yield losses. This information
can contribute to decision making for Japanese brome
management. Given several production factors, this ET
is more precise and reliable than the ET determined with
only yield losses and can be used to develop better control
strategies.
