Effect of integrated weed management on summer greengram under alluvial soil of West Bengal Adhikary Pabitra1, Patra Partha Sarathi2,* 1North 24 PGs Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Directorate of Research, Extension and FarmsWest Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Ashokenagar, West Bengal743223, India 2Department of Agronomy, Uttar Bangha Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Coochbehar, West Bengal, 736165, India *Corresponding author email: partha@ubkv.ac.in
Online Published on 24 April, 2024. Abstract Uncontrolled weeds cause severe yield loss in summer greengram. These weeds can be managed by physical, mechanical, chemical and through integrated approach. The present study was formulated to evaluate the effect of integrated weed management on summer greengram during 2017 and 2018 in alluvial soil of West Bengal. Altogether five treatments were fitted in randomized block design replicated four times. Treatments comprising of weedy check, twice hand weeding at 20 and 40 days after sowing, mechanical weeding (MW) at 20 and 40 DAS, imazethapyr 75 g/ha at 15 DAS fb MW at 40 DAS and aqueous extract of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) 10% 2.5 L/ha as PE fb MW at 40 DAS. Results revealed that, at early stage of crop growth, pre-emergence application of cucumber aqueous extract 10% recorded the weed control efficiency of 70.55% at 10 DAS and sustained 61.48% and 57.02% up to 25 DAS and 50 DAS, respectively. Hand weeding twice recorded the highest WCE of 81.98% at 25 DAS and 66.54% at 50 DAS followed by application of imazethapyr 75 g/ha at 25 DAS (73.50) and 50 DAS (62.08%), respectively. Different weed management options increased the greengram yield by 24.05% to 73.42% over weedy check. Two hand weeding recorded the highest seed yield of 1.37 t/ha, which gave 75.64% yield advantage over weedy check. Highest net return and maximum B: C ratio was registered in the application of imazethapyr 75 g/ha followed by a mechanical weeding. The composition and dosages of chemical and botanical herbicides have been proven to have a considerable impact on soil microorganisms with the inhibitory effect being noticeable shortly after its application which subsides later. This indicates that integrated weed management practices were more effective to reduce weed seed bank and possible options for cost-effective weed management in greengram. Top Keywords Allelopathy, Greengram, Integrated weed management, Seed yield, Weed management. Top |