Weed management in rainfed finger millet

A field experiment was conducted during rainy season of 2014 at Experimental Farm, Hawalbagh, Almora, to know the effect of weed management practices on weed index and grain yield of rainfed finger millet. All the weed control measures significantly reduced total weed dry weight and weed index as compared to that of weedy check. Manual weeding at 20 and 40 DAS (5.6 g/m2) significantly lowered the total weed dry weight followed by manual weeding at 20 DAS (7.4 g/m2). Weed dry matter recorded in weed wiper treated plots were at par with pre-emergence pendimethalin at 1 kg/ha and post-emergence 2, 4-D at 1 kg/ha. Apart from weed free check highest weed index was found in manual weeding at 20 and 40 DAS (82.0%) followed by manual weeding at 20 DAS (68.5%). Grain yield was significantly higher in hand weeding twice (2200 kg/ha) followed by weeding once (2.02 t/ha). The highest B: C ratio was in manual weeding at 20 DAS (1.39).