Weed management in maize (Zea mays L.) using straw mulch and herbicides
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Date
2018
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
The field experiment entitled “Weed management in maize (Zea mays L.) using straw
mulch and herbicides” was conducted at Students’ Research Farm, Department of Agronomy,
PAU, Ludhiana and Research Farm, Regional Research Station Gurdaspur (PAU) during
kharif 2017. The experiment was conducted in a factorial randomized block design with three
replications. There were three mulch treatments as first factor (no mulch, paddy straw mulch
at 6.25 t ha-1 and paddy straw mulch at 9.0 t ha-1) and six weed control treatments were taken
as second factor viz. atrazine at 1.0 kg ha-1 pre-emergence, atrazine at 0.8 kg ha-1 preemergence,
tembotrione at 0.110 kg ha-1 at 20 DAS, tembotrione at 0.088 kg ha-1 at 20 DAS,
weed free and unweeded check. The major weed flora included Dactyloctenium aegyptium,
Eragrostis tenella, Digitaria sanguinalis, Echinochloa colona, Cynodon dactylon as grasses,
Trianthema portulacastrum as broadleaf weed and Cyperus rotundus as sedge. Among
different mulch treatments, application of paddy straw mulch at 9.0 t ha-1 recorded
significantly lower density and weed dry matter accumulation of grasses, sedges and
broadleaf weeds as compared to paddy straw mulch at 6.25 t ha-1 and no mulch treatments.
Highest yield attributing characters, grain yield, net returns and benefit cost ratio were
recorded with application of paddy straw mulch at 9.0 t ha-1 which were significantly higher
than application of paddy straw mulch at 6.25 t ha-1 and no mulch treatment. Also,
application of paddy straw mulch at 6.25 t ha-1 produced significantly higher growth and
yield attributes of maize as compared to no mulch treatment. Among the herbicide treatments,
tembotrione at 0.088 kg ha-1 and tembotrione at 0.110 kg ha-1 were found very effective in
controlling different weed species as compared to atrazine at 0.8 kg ha-1 and atrazine at 1.0 kg
ha-1. Application of tembotrione at 0.088 or 0.110 kg ha-1 in combination with straw mulch at
9.0 t ha-1 recorded significantly lower density and dry matter accumulation of all weed species
but resulted in significantly higher yield attributing characters, grain yield, net returns and
benefit cost ratio as compared to all other combinations of straw mulch and herbicides. Thus,
for getting higher productivity and profitability from maize, tembotrione at 0.088 kg ha-1 as
post-emergence in combination with paddy straw mulch at 9.0 t ha-1 can be applied, as this
herbicide-mulch combination helps in reduction of 20% dose of herbicide.
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