[North Queensland Register 17 June 2014 by Cindy Benjamin] — SOWTHISTLE and fleabane have both proven to be difficult to control with herbicides and now there are herbicide resistant populations being identified at wide-spread locations in Australia. With limited herbicide options available researchers have been investigating non-herbicide tactics that might help bring these weeds under control. The optimal tactic would be one that could be easily implemented as part of every-day farming practice and crop competition. Experiments were designed to determine if crop competition could be used to combat weeds. The results have been very encouraging. Weed researchers like Michael Widderick from the Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, concluding that narrow row spacing and increased crop density can make a real difference to in-crop weed populations, and even reduce weed germinations in the following fallow. “When the crop canopy closes over early and is dense enough to completely shade the soil surface, weed seeds are much less likely to germinate and the plants that do germinate set less seed,” he said. “Reducing the number of weed seeds that germinate in a season makes a significant difference to the number of viable seeds present in the soil, particularly for species, such as sowthistle and fleabane, which have seed that only remain viable for up to a few years near the soil surface.