Vol. 11, Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
Sadaf Iqbal, Mohd Anwar Bhat, Tahir Ahmad Sheikh, Zahoor Ahmad Baba, Ahmad Abdullah Saad, Tauseef Ahmad Bhat, Fahim Jeelani and Aamir Hassan Mir

Abstract:
A field experiment was conducted at Faculty of Agriculture Wadura (SKUAST-K) during kharif 2020-2021 to investigate the effect of different herbicide combinations and tillage practices on weed population dynamics and productivity of sweet corn. The treatment comprised of two tillage practices (conventional and zero tillage) and different weed management methods including six herbicide treatment combinations viz., T₁ (Atrazine 1.0 kg ha^-1 (PE) fb. mechanical weeding at 50 DAS), T₂ (Pendimethalin 1.0 kg ha^-1 (PE) fb. mechanical weeding at 50 DAS), T₃ (Atrazine + Pendimethalin (0.75 + 0.75 kg ha^-1 (PE) fb. mechanical weeding at 50 DAS), T₄ (Tembotrione 120 g ha^-1 (PoE) at 25 DAS, T5 (Atrazine 1.0 kg ha^-1 (PE) fb. Tembotrione 120 g ha^-1 (PoE) at 25 DAS, T₆ (Pendimethalin 1.0 kg ha^-1 (PE) fb. Tembotrione @ 120 g ha^-1 (PoE) at 25 DAS, T₇ Weed free (mechanical weeding at 15, 30, 45, 60 DAS) and T₈ (Weedy check). The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. The soil of the experimental field was silty clay loam in texture, neutral in reaction with medium N (287 kg ha^-1) and P (12.75 kg ha^-1) and medium in K (187.0 kg ha^-1).Significant variation in weed density and weed dry matter accumulation was recorded in conventional tillage in comparison to the zero tillage. Study reveals that among different weed management methods significant reduction in weed density and weed dry matter accumulation was observed in weed free (T₇) followed by treatment T₅ which showed significant difference from rest of the treatments. Significantly, highest weed density and weed dry matter accumulation was found in weedy check (T₈). Two years experiment revealed that the efficient control of weeds in weed free plot resulted in highest green cob yield 207.27 q ha^-1 and 222.27q ha^-1, respectively which was found at par with (T ₅) 206.28 q ha^-1 and 221.28 q ha^-1, respectively because of efficient control of weeds by atrazine 1.0 kg ha^-1 given as pre-emergent followed by tembotrione 120 g ha^-1 as PoE hebicide. Similarly conventional tillage resulted in highest green cob yield 187.97 q ha^-1 and 202.97 q ha^-1 over zero tillage 161.46 q ha^-1 and 176.25 q ha^-1, respectively.