Effect of weed management and phosphorus nutrition on yield of cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.]

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out during kharif 2019 at Instructional Farm of Agronomy, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Udaipur to study the effect of weed management and phosphorus nutrition on yield of cowpea. Results revealed that minimum dry matter of weeds and the highest WCE, superior growth parameters, yield attributes and yield were recorded with pre-emergence application of pendimethalin 750 g ha-1 in combination with imazethapyr + imazamox 33.75 g ha-1 as post-emergence at 15-20 DAS next to weed free treatment. Whereas, application of 50 kg P2O5 ha-1 resulted in the highest dry matter of total weeds which was statistically at equivalence with application of 40 kg P2O5 ha-1 while, yield attributes and yield of cowpea pointedly increased with application of phosphorus at 40 kg P2O5 ha-1 compared to 30 kg P2O5 ha-1 at significant level and further addition of phosphorus from 40 to 50 kg P2O5 ha-1 failed to bring any significant improvement in these parameters.