Integrated Weed Management in Wheat under Subtropical Rain-Fed Conditions

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out from July, 2013 to May, 2014 at University Research Farm Chakwal Road, of Pir Mehr Ali Shah-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi to evaluate the integrated weed control management strategies followed by summer green manure practices on weeds and grain yield of wheat under rain-fed conditions. The experiment was laid out in a 2-factor factorial Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) in strip plot arrangement with three replications of each treatment. The sorghum and sesbania crops were sown in the first week of July, 2013 and incorporated into soil as green manure at the end of August, 2013 after attaining sufficient biomass. The wheat variety "Chakwal-50" was sown with a tractor drawn rabi drill in the last week of October, 2013 with a seeding rate of 125kg ha^-1. The herbicides used were buctril super @ 750ml ha^-1 and isoproturon @ 1.00kg a.i. ha^-1. The weeds found in the wheat crop were Fumaria indica L., Convolvulus arvensis L., Chenonpodium album L., Asphodelus tenuifolius L. The incorporation of sorghum green manuring resulted in good control to suppress the weed population and biomass. The buctril super @ 750ml ha^-1 along with tharphali significantly reduced the weed density (18.8 m^-2), weed biomass (12.7g m^-2) and increased weed control efficiency (71.1%) followed by isoproturon applied @ 1.00kg a.i. ha^-1. The highest grains yield of 3208.5kg ha^-1 was recorded in the plots where weeds were controlled with buctril super @ 750ml ha^-1 followed by tharphali where sorghum green manure was incorporated in summer followed by the isoproturon application @ 1.00kg a.i. ha^-1(3016.1kg ha^-1) in combination with tharphali in the same green manuring crop.