Influence of weed management practices on weed control efficiency, growth and productivity of hybrid maize

A field experiment was conducted during Kharif 2015 at Arkabahal Farm, Bhawanipatana Odisha, India to find out the most efficient and effective method of weed management in hybrid maize under rainfed condition. The treatments comprised of intercropping of maize + cowpea (1:1), maize + cowpea(1:1) with pre emergence application of pendimethalin @ 1 kg/ ha, pre emergence application of atrazine @ 1 kg/ ha either alone or with hand weeding at 30 days after sowing(DAS), pre emergence application of atrazine + pendimethalin @ (0.5 + 0.5) kg/ha followed by hand weeding at 30 DAS, hand weeding at 15 DAS and twice hand weeding at 15 and 30 DAS were compared with un weeded control. The results of experiment revealed that dry matter production of weeds, crop growth of hybrid maize in terms of plant height, number of leaves/plant, leaf area index and dry matter production along with yield attributes and yield were significantly influenced by the weed management treatments. The integrated use of pre-emergence application of herbicide combination of atrazine + pendimethalin (0.5 + 0.5) kg/ha and atrazine @ 1kg/ha with supplemented with hand weeding at 30 DAS in sole maize along with pendimethalin @ 1 kg/ha in intercropping of maize with cowpea remarkably reduced the weed dry matter accumulation and enhanced the weed control efficiency and crop growth parameters in terms of plant height, number of leaves/plant, leaf area index and dry matter production. The highest maize grain (5.67 t/ha) and stover yield (6.57 t/ha) were recorded in pre-emergence application of herbicide mixture of atrazine + pendimethalin (0. 5 + 0.5) kg/ha supplemented with hand weeding practice at 30 DAS. It remained at par with pre-emergence application of atrazine @ 0.5kg/ ha with hand weeding at 30 DAS in sole maize and pendimethalin @ 1 kg/ha in intercropping of maize + cowpea. The uninterrupted growth of weeds reduced the grain yield of maize to an extent of 68.11%.