Factorial designs with check in pesticide research
Published at December 15, 2023 · 6 min read
In pesticide research or, in general, agriculture research, we very commonly encouter experiments with two/three crossed factors and some other treatment that is not included in the factorial structure. For example, let’s consider an experiment with two herbicides (rimsulfuron and dicamba) at two rates (40 and 60 g/ha for rimsulfuron and 0.6 and 1 kg/ha for dicamba) and with four adjuvant treatments (surfactant, frigate, mineral oil and no adjuvant). Apart from this fully crossed structure, we need to introduce, at least, an untreated control and a hand-weeded control. The design for such an experiment has been termed ‘augmented factorial’, because we are, indeed, including some extra treatment levels beyond the crossed factorial structure.
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