With continuing pressure to reduce overall pesticide use, viable and sustainable alternatives are being sought for the control of agricultural and non-agricultural weeds. Our client required validation of their unconventional novel weed treatment system (NWTS) to support European and North American market entry.
Brief
Advanced Invasives were commissioned to:
Undertake NWTS multispecies testing at the Invasives Research Centre (IRC) near Cardiff.
Conduct multiyear outdoor pot- and field-based testing over two growing seasons.
Demonstrate credible control across both intra- and inter-season periods to satisfy regulatory and market requirements.
What we did
Building on previous experiments that proved the NWTS could kill annual and woody plants, this study focused on high-resilience species with complex underground organs (e.g. rhizomes, deep tap roots).
The team selected six key ‘difficult’ Invasive Non-Native Plants (INNPs) and UK Native Weeds for testing:
Controlled pot trials – 50 mature individuals of each species being propagated in containers with uncontaminated topsoil and allowed two months to establish before testing began.
Field-based testing – in addition to pot trials, 25m² (5m x 5m) field plots were established in triplicate within mature Japanese Knotweed stands at the IRC.
Focus on below-ground efficacy – investigations were specifically designed to examine how the treatment affected the rhizomes and taproots, ensuring the plants were not just ‘burned off’ at the surface but killed at the root.
Key Outcomes
By conducting the trial over two full growing seasons, the project provided the client with credible, evidence-based validation of their system's efficacy. The results established how NWTS treatments worked at the whole-plant level, and where efficacy could be optimised within wider commercial application. Ai provided formal evaluation of NWTS treatment application constraints, identifying practical benefits and drawbacks of this novel technology application under real world conditions. This robust dataset supported by independent consultancy advice provided the necessary commercial confidence for the client to proceed with their market entry strategies in both Europe and North America.
Project value
£0
Sectors
Summary
Advanced Invasives was commissioned to conduct a rigorous, two-season efficacy trial at the Invasives Research Centre (IRC) to validate a client's Novel Weed Treatment System (NWTS) as a sustainable, non-chemical alternative to traditional pesticides. The study utilised both controlled pot trials and field-based plots to test the system against six high-resilience species, including Japanese Knotweed and Creeping Thistle, with a specific focus on below-ground mortality rather than the absence of above ground plant growth. By documenting whole-plant effects and identifying practical operational constraints under real-world conditions, Dr Daniel Jones provided the independent, academic-grade data necessary for the client to confidently pursue market entry strategies across Europe and North America.