Comparative Efficacy of Herbicides in Potato1

The comparative performance of herbicides with cultural practices was evaluated for weed control in potato for four years. On an average 37.5% reduc-tion in the tuber yield of potato was caused due to uncontrolled weeds. AH the herbicides gave significantly more tuber yield than the weedy check. Application of paraquat (0.5 kg/ha) 20 days after planting of potato provided good control of weeds and produced yields higher than other herbicides and comparable with weed-free treatment. On an average, metribuzin (0.7 kg/ha), methabenzthiazuron (2.0 kg/ha) and prometryn (1.0 kg/ha) were also quite effective but their performance was not consistant in all the years. One weeding (20 days after planting) followed by earthing up (45 days after sowing) could not provide desired degree of weed control resulting in lower yields than the herbicide treatments.