Weed management in rabi onion ( Allium cepa L.)

A field experiment was carried out during rabi season of 2012–13 at Junagadh to find out practically convenient and economically feasible weed management practice in onion. The experiment comprised of ten treatments of pre-emergence and post- emergence herbicides, their combination with hand weeding, weed free and unweeded control. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. Weed free check treatment (three hand weeding at 15, 30, 45 and 60 DAT) recorded significantly the lowest dry matter of weeds and the highest weed control efficiency. All the growth and yield attributes of onion viz., plant height (58.87 cm), no. of leaves (15.11), neck thickness (1.4 cm), A grade bulb (42.60%), fresh bulb weight (70 g), bulb diameter (5.75 cm) and bulb yield (40.9 t ha−1) were recorded maximum in weed free plots. This treatment also recorded minimum bolters (0.0%) and doubles (1.12%), the highest gross ( 3,27,200 ha−1) & net return (2,87,471) and maximum B:C ratio (7.12). However, treatment combined spray of oxyfluorfen @ 0.240 kg ha1 and propaquizafop @ 0.090 kg ha−1 as PE followed by second spray as POE at 45 DAT was equally effective with this treatment.