Effect of weed management on growth and yield of Kharif onion

Abstract

A field trial was conducted in orchard of Horticultural College and Research Institute, TNAU, Coimbatore during kharif season (2016 – 2017) to evaluate the effect of cultural and chemical practices for controlling the weeds of onion. The treatment comprised hand weeding, plastic mulching, organic mulching, different herbicides, their combination with hand weeding and weedy check. The treatment was laid out in randomized block design with four replications. The study revealed that effective weed control was recorded under application of Oxyflurofen 23.5% EC application before planting + one hand weeding at 40-60 days after transplanting (T1). The same treatment (T1) recorded significantly highest value for plant height, number of leaves and average bulb weight compared to other treatments. Significantly highest marketable and total bulb yield was recorded in T1 treatments followed by T2. Spraying of pre-emergence herbicides keeps the crop in weed free conditions during early stages. Then, at later stages hand weeding helps to reduce the weed population throughout the cropping period thereby increase the yield.