A biological approach to blackgrass control, which effectively infects them with disease, is being tested on UK farms. 

Rather than killing the weed, the product uses fungi to stunt its growth, enabling crops to smother it out.

Eutrema is a Northamptonshire company that specialises in nutrition products, including horticultural crops grown in hydroponics.   

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Speaking at the recent Agrovista open day, managing director Russell Sharp explained that with hydroponics, fungi can often be a problem growing in the medium.

So he thought, why not use fungi to fight the grassweed.

He explained that the product infects blackgrass plants with mildew and rusts, which are specific to that species.

It results in the blackgrass being stunted, allowing hybrid barley to flourish. The weed eventually dies (see picture).

The concept is being tested on 15 trial farms and Agrovista trial sites. This season, results were mixed with some farms seeing success while others did not.

This was put down to a timing issue, with fungicides killing the pathogen.

The trial is being repeated this autumn.

Russell added that it also creates a hydrophilic covering on the weed, so when farmers apply a herbicide, there is a much greater uptake of the active.

If the concept proves successful, he said they will look at pathogens specific to other weeds like ryegrass, rats tail fescue and wild oats.