Influence of fertility levels and weed management practices on yield and yield attributes of rain-fed maize

摘要

Investigating the response of rain-fed maize to fertility levels and weed management practices, a field trial was undertaken in 2012 and 2013 at Experimental Farm, D(K)ARS, SKUAST-Kashmir, (J&K). The experiment consisted of 3 fertility levels and 4 weed management practices. The results revealed that fertility levels F3 and F2 at par with one another recorded significant increase in cob length, number of cobs plant-1, number of grains cob-1, 100-seed weight, grain yield, and stover yield as against F1 during both the years, however, number of rows cob-1, cob diameter showed significant and consistent improvement with increase in fertility level from F1 to F3 during both years of study. Further, fertility levels F3 recorded significant increase in biological yield over F1, however, increase in fertility level from F1 to F2 increased the harvest index significantly during both years of study. Weed management practices W2 being at par with W3 recorded significant improvement in all yield contributing characters over W1 and W0. Both grain and stover yields were significantly higher with W2 over W1 and W0, however, it was at par with W3 during 2012 and 2013. W3 and W2 at par with one another recorded significantly higher biological yield and harvest index over W1 and W0 during both the years of experimentation.