Weed management in Solanaceae crops in Portugal

Portugal has very good climatic-edafic conditions for Solanaceae crops, regarding to either yield quality or quantity. Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Miller.), potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) and pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) are the most social-economically important Solanaceae and aubergine (Solanum melongena L.) area of cultivation is increasing. Tomato is cultivated for fresh consumption and, primarily, for industrial processing. Is one of the most profitable vegetable crop and the main vegetable for industry. Potato is the annual vegetable crop with the largest cultivated area. Pepper is one of the main crops for vegetable frozen industry. Tomato, pepper and aubergine are cultivated in the field (outdoor) in Spring-Summer season. In greenhouses, they're also grown during other months and, at the southmost region (Algarve), during the whole year. Potato is cultivated almost the whole year through. Weed management is essential to achieve yield rentability and, for crops growing in the field, herbicides play an important role, due to their efficacy or inherent limitations of other control measures. This paper presents the state of art, in Portugal, regarding to some cultural and social-economical aspects of these crops (e.g., cultivated areas, productions, main producer regions), main weeds, weed control methods and, in particular, registered herbicides, with indication of their usage conditions (application timings and spectrum of weeds controlled) according to the principles of Good Plant Protection Practice and Integrated Weed Management.