Growth and Yield of Maize (Zea mays L.) as Influenced by Integrated Weed Management under Temperate Conditions of North Western Himalayas

摘要

A field experiment was conducted at Experimental Station of CSIR-IIIM, Srinagar, J&K, India during kharif 2013 and 2014. The experiment was laid in a randomized block design with 4 weed management practices viz., W₀= No weeding, W₁ = Hand weeding 20 and 50 days after sowing, W₂ = atrazine @ 1.0 kg a.i ha-1 PRE + hand weeding 20 days after sowing and W₃ = atrazine @ 1.0 kg a.i ha-1 PRE + Isoproturon @ 1.0 kg a.i ha-1 POST. The results revealed that weed management practices W₂ at par with W₃ significantly improved plant height, number of functional leaves, leaf area index and dry matter production at different growth stages as compared to W₀, whereas W₂ took significantly more number of days for the crop to reach different phenological stages over rest of the treatments including control during both years of study. Similarly, W₂ being at par with W₃ recorded significant improvement in all yield contributing characters over W₁ and W₀. Both grain and stover yields were also significantly higher with W₂ over W₁ and W₀. Significantly higher biological yield and harvest index was recorded with W₃ as compared to the rest of treatments during both the years of experimentation.