Vol. 10, Issue 12 (2021)

Author(s):
SG Mehetre, PP Pawar, MD Gurav, RA Pawar and VC Are

Abstract:
An experiment entitled “Weed management in hybrid pearl millet (Adishakti) under rainfed condition” was conducted during kharif season of 2020 at Post Graduate Research Farm, Agronomy Section, College of Agriculture, Dhule. The experiment consisted of nine treatments viz., weedy check (T₁), weed free (T₂), atrazine @ 0.50 kg ha^-1 PoE (T₃), 2,4-D (Dimethyl amine) @ 0.5 kg ha^-1 at 25-30 DAS PoE (T₄), 2,4-D (Na Salt) @ 0.5 kg ha^-1 at 25-30 DAS PoE (T₅), atrazine @ 0.5 kg ha^-1 PE fb 2,4-D (Dimethyl amine) @ 0.5 kg ha^-1 at 25-30 DAS PoE (T₆), atrazine @ 0.5 kg ha^-1 PE fb 2,4-D (Na Salt) @ 0.5 kg ha^-1 at 25-30 DAS PoE (T₇), pendimethalin 750 g ha^-1 PE fb 2,4-D (Dimethyl amine) @ 0.5 kg ha^-1 at 25-30 DAS PoE (T₈), pendimethalin 750 g ha^-1 PE fb 2,4-D (Na Salt) @ 0.5 kg ha^-1 at 25-30 DAS PoE (T₉) and followed a randomized block design with three replications. Out of the nine treatments, weed free (T₂) recorded highest yield be it grain or straw which was statistically at par to treatment T₉ i.e. pendimethalin 750 g ha^-1 PE fb 2,4-D (Na Salt) @ 0.5 kg ha^-1 at 25-30 DAS PoE. Weed intensity and weed dry weight were found significantly lower in weed free (T₂) treatment which was statistically at par to pendimethalin 750 g ha^-1 PE fb 2,4-D (Na Salt) @ 0.5 kg ha^-1 at 25-30 DAS PoE (T₉). The highest benefit: cost ratio was recorded under pendimethalin 750 g ha^-1 PE fb 2,4-D (Na Salt) @ 0.5 kg ha^-1 at 25-30 DAS PoE (T₉) followed by pendimethalin 750 g ha^-1 PE fb 2,4-D (Dimethyl amine) @ 0.5 kg ha^-1 at 25-30 DAS PoE (T₈) and weed free (T₂) (2.54, 2.32 and 2.27, respectively). Hence, it can be concluded that sequential application of pre-emergence herbicide i.e. Pendimethalin followed by post-emergence herbicide i.e. 2,4-D (Na Salt and Dimethyl amine) are effective with higher benefit: cost ratio than hand weeding due to higher cost for labor weeding. Sequential application of pre- followed by post-emergence herbicides was also found effective than application of pre-emergence herbicides only.