Weed management in irrigated organic finger millet

A field experiment was conducted during Kharif season 2012 at the Main Research Station, Hebbal, Bengaluru, to know the effect of weed management practices on weed flora and weed growth in irrigated organic finger millet. All weed management treatments had significantly lower total weed density and weed dry weight as compared to unweeded control. Stale seed bed technique + inter cultivation twice at 20 and 35 DAP (23.9/m2 and 10.3 g/m2) significantly lowered the total weed density as well as weed dry weight and was at par with hand weeding twice at 20 and 30 DAP (22.6/m2 and 9.4 g/m2, respectively). Higher total weed density and weed dry weight was found in unweeded check (245.9/m2 and 105.1 g/m2). Highest weed control efficiency was found in manual weeding (93.2%) followed by stale seedbed combined with inter cultivation twice (91.6%) and passing wheel hoe twice with one manual weeding (88.7%). Grain yield was significantly higher in hand weeding twice (5.46 t/ha) followed by stale seedbed combined with inter cultivation twice (5.36 t/ha).