Linseed plant is especially sensitive to weed competition, which limits its potential yield. The aim of this work was to determine the critical period of linseed competition with a natural weed community. A field experiment was carried out in 1993, 1994 and 1995 in La Plata, Argentina. Treatments consisted of keeping linseed with and without weeds at different stages of development. Weed composition and dry biomass, and linseed yield and its components were evaluated. The critical period of competition was determined, starting at 30 days and ending 80 days after crop seeding. Linseed yield decrease was greater than 10% during the critical period of competition,when compared to the check plot kept without competition. The maximum yield decrease of the check plot kept totally weeded crop from seeding to harvest was 79%. The number of seeds per linseed plant was affected, since its definition was included in the delimited critical period. The results obtained suggest that alternative weed management must consider long critical periods and should be used in predictive models.
alternative management; predictive models; weed community; seeds per plant
