Integrated weed management practices on productivity of irrigated blackgram

Abstract

The field experiment was conducted during rabi 2011 at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Killikulam, Tamil Nadu to evolve the weed management practices in irrigated blackgram as part of M.Sc., research programme. Dactyloctenium aegyptium, Chloris barbata, Cyperus rotundus, Trianthema portulacastrum, Boerhavia diffusa and Cleome viscosa were the dominant weed species in the experimental field. The results showed that unchecked weeds caused a reduction of 63.2% in yield of black gram. The weed free treatment followed by hand weeding twice at 15 and 30 DAS recorded maximum number of pods plant-1 (32), number of seeds pod-1 (5.67), 100 grain weight (4.76 g), seed yield (710 kg ha-1) and higher weed control efficiency (92 %) which was comparable with pre-emergence application of imazethapyr @ 0.075 kg ha-1 at 3 DAS + one hand weeding at 30 DAS.