Determination of weed species in apricot orchards in different ecological locations in kale district of Malatya province

Apricot has a very important importance in terms of agricultural production and economy in Malatya province. Weeds are one of the biggest problem in apricot cultivation as in other herbal cultivations. In this study, which was carried out in Kale district of Malatya province between July 2020 and June 2022, by determining the weed types that cause problems in apricot orchards, their general covering areas, their frequency of occurrence and development periods, it contributes to the determination of the right method and application time for apricot farming farmers. Within the scope of this study, a survey was conducted in 6 different apricot orchards located at different altitudes and locations in the Kale district of Malatya province. Four one-m2 frames were randomly placed in each apricot orchard and the weed species in the frames were counted and the covering areas were determined. As a result of the studies, a total of 106 weed species, 32 of which are monocotyledons and 74 of which are dicotyledons, belonging to 30 families have been identified. Ranunculus repens L., Ranunculus bulbosus L., Poa bulbosa L., Sanguisorba minor Scop., Cynodon dactylon(L.) Pers., Euphorbia rigida M.Bieb., Senecio vulgaris L., Xeranthemum cylindraceum Sm. The most common in terms of density while Bromus tectorum L., Medicago sativa L., Chenopodium album L., Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers., Euphorbia rigida M.Bieb., Setaria viridis (L.) P.Beauv. ve Poa trivialis L.. The similarity in the orchards with the highest similarity index in terms of similarity indices was 0.703 in the apricot orchards located in Bent (908 m) and Çanakçı (1330 m) areas in the summer period of 2020-2021. In addition, it was observed that the density of weed species increased as the elevation decreased, and the diversity of weed species increased as the elevation increased.