Vol. 12, Issue 6 (2023)

Author(s):
Sushmita, RB Yadav, Vivek, Adesh and BP Dhyani

Abstract:
A field trial was conducted at CRC Farm, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India, to assess the impact of phyto-extracts and herbicides on weed control and the growth of wheat crops. The experiment followed a randomized block design (RBD) and included twelve treatments. These treatments were as follows: T₁: Weedy check (WC), T₂: Weed free (WF), T₃: Phyto-extract of Parthenium (PhE-Parthenium) (PP), T₄: PhE- Guava (PG), T₅: PhE- Mango (PM), T₆: PhE- Eucalyptus (PE), T₇: Sulfosulfuron 75 WP @ 25g ha^-1 PoE (S), T₈: Fenoxaprop-p-ethyl @ 120 g ha^-1 PoE (F), T₉: PhE-Parthenium fb Fenoxaprop-p-ethyl @ 120 g ha^-1PoE (PP+F), T₁₀: PhE-Guava fb Fenoxaprop-p-ethyl @ 120 g ha^-1PoE (PG+F), T₁₁: PhE-Mango fb Fenoxaprop-p-ethyl @ 120 g ha^-1PoE (PM+F) and T₁₂: PhE-Eucalyptus fb Fenoxaprop-p-ethyl @ 120 g ha^-1PoE (PE+F) and this experiment was replicated thrice. The data obtained from the two-year experiment indicated that the different phyto-extracts and herbicides had significant effects on various growth parameters of the wheat crop. The weed-free treatment (T2) showed significantly higher values for all the growth characteristics of the wheat crop. This treatment exhibited the tallest plant height (106.40 and 104.87, respectively), the highest number of tillers per meter of row length (323.67 and 285.99, respectively), the greatest dry matter accumulation (1261.90 and 1108.88 g m-2, respectively), and the highest leaf area index (5.14 and 5.09, respectively) at the harvest stage in both years of the experiment. The treatments T9, T10, T11, T12, T8, T7, T3, T5, and T4 also showed varying degrees of improvement in these parameters compared to the weedy check treatment (T1), which exhibited the lowest values.