Euston-Brown, D., Rathogwa, N & Richardson ... - DWA Home Page

ainfall (mm)
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
Rainfall at Tzaneen by season
summer autumn winter spring annual total
months
Figure 2: Rainfall by season over four years at Tzaneen. The annual total is also shown. Data supplied by the
South African Weather Service (no data available for winter and and spring 2006).
The time and number of people it took to apply the various treatments to the plots was recorded and
this was converted to person days per hectare. The follow up treatments were consistently quicker
to do than the initial treatments, taking on average one eighth of the time. The foliar spray method
was the quickest method while the cut & treat method takes about two times longer (Kruskal-Wallis
ANOVA by ranks, p=0.01).
Figure 3a and b provides a broad summary of the results obtained at both sites between 2005 and
2004. and between 2006 and 2004. The cut & treat method was the most effective clearing method
at both the Hilltop and Theuns Botha Sites in 2005 (Figure 3a). The foliar spray and hand pulling
treatments are also effective but not as effective as the cut & treat method. In 2005 all treatments
resulted in an average loss of indigenous species, but by 2006 this had changed to an overall increase
in diversity. In 2006 all treatments were very effective for clearing chromolaena, except for the stacking
treatment for cut & treat with chopper which had a high recovery of chromolaena at the Hilltop site.
2003
2004
2005
2006
Appendix 2
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