Effect of tillage and weed management on yield and nutrient uptake by winter maize

Abstract

A field experiment entitled “Tillage and weed management in winter maize” was conducted during the rabi season 2013 at Agronomy Research Farm, Central Research Station, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with twenty treatments in respect of its four main plots and five sub-plots. The main plot contain four different tillage methods i.e. M1 (conventional), M2 (reduced), M3 (zero till), and M4 (glyphosate treated zero till). The sub-plots contain five different type of weed management practices i.e. W1 (Atrazine@ 1.0 kg/ha), W2 (oxyfluorfen@ 0.03 kg/ha), W3 (metolachlor@ 1.0 kg/ha), W4 (Two hand weedings and earthing up) and W5 (weedy check). The removal of N, P and K by weeds (68.75, 12.03 and 108.67 kg/ha) was the highest in the weedy check treatment. The nutrient content of grain and stover of maize in oxyfluorfen treated plots were maximum. Weedy check reported the lowest value of N, P and K content as compared with weed control treatments. The highest grain yield was recorded with glyphosate treated zero tillage method followed by zero tillage and the lowest was recorded with conventional tillage.