Productivity of Sesame on Growth and Yield as Influence by Plant Spacing and Weed Management Practices

Abstract

Field experiment was conducted during zaid-2022 at the Crop Research Farm, Department of Agronomy, Naini Agricultural Institute, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Prayagraj (U.P.) India, to investigate on the productivity of sesame on growth and yield as influence by plant spacing and weed management practices. The soil of experimental plot was sandy loamy in texture, nearly neutral in soil reaction (pH 7.8), low in organic carbon (0.35%). The treatments consist of three levels of spacing 20 x 10cm, 30 x 10 cm, and 40 x 10 cm and three types of weed managements (Two hand weeding at 21 and 42DAS, Pendimethalin 0.7 5kg/ha at 1 DAS + one hand weeding at 21 DAS, and + Quizalofop ethyl 0.05 kg/ha on 25 DAS + one hand weeding at 42 DAS).The experiment was laidout in randomized complete block design with nine treatments each replicated three times. The results obtained indicated that the higher plant height (129.99 cm), higher number of branches (3.77), higher plant dry weight (15.63 g/plant), higher crop growth rate (12.13 g/m2/day) higher number of capsules/plant (31.91), higher number of seeds/ capsules (47.48), higher test weight (3.48 gm), higher seed yield (1177.07 kg/ha) and higher stalk yield (1610.41 kg/ha) were significantly influenced at a plant spacing of 40 x 10 cm along with the application of Quizalofop ethyl @0.05 kg/ha on 25 DAS + one hand weeding at 42 DAS. However higher gross return (92,164.84 INR/ha), higher net return (65,840.84 INR/ha) and higher B:Cratio (2.50) were also recorded in treatment-9 at a spacing of 40 x 10 cm along with the application of Quizalofop ethyl @0.05 kg/ha on 25 DAS + one hand weeding at 42 DAS.