Effect of irrigation and weed management on lentil (Lens culinaris Medic. L.) under different planting techniques.

Raised bed planting of lentil produced significantly higher yield as compared to zero till sowing; however, it was at par with the yield obtained in flat sowing. Weed dry weight was found higher in flat bed sowing and it was the lowest in zero till sowing. Irrigating lentil at flowering stage increased the grain yield significantly over no irrigation to the tune of 9.01 and 10.73% during 2005–06 and 2006–07, respectively. This may be due to more number of pods/plant, grains/plant and 1000-grain weight recorded under irrigated treatment. Application of pendimethalin (pre-emergence) @ 1.0 kg/ha controlled weeds more effectively as compared with one hand weeding at 30 days after sowing (DAS). One hand weeding at 30 DAS and pendimethalin @ 1.0 kg/ha produced 14.09 and 30.67 during 2005–06 and 2006–07 and 30.67 and 38.10% higher grain yield over weedy check. The dominant weed flora consisted of Chenopodium album and Melilotus indica.