Sustainable Weed Management Practices in Growth and Yield of Soybean (Glycine max L.)

Abstract

Soybean productivity is substantially affected by weed competition, particularly during the early stages of crop growth when weeds compete for essential resources. Effective and sustainable weed-management strategies are therefore important for reducing weed interference and improving soybean growth and yield performance. An experiment was conducted during the kharif season of 2025-26 at the College Farm, School of Agricultural Sciences, G H Raisoni University, Saikheda, PM, to evaluate sustainable weed-management practices in soybean (Glycine max L.). The experiment was laid out in a randomised block design with three replications. The evaluated treatments comprised post-emergence quizalofop-p-ethyl; pendimethalin followed by imazethapyr, fenoxaprop-p-ethyl, quizalofop-p-ethyl, or halosulfuron; pendimethalin followed by hand weeding or wheel-hoe weeding; a weed-free treatment involving hand weeding at 20 and 40 DAS; and a weedy check. Observations were recorded on crop growth and yield-attributing characters. Plant height and plant dry-matter accumulation did not differ significantly among treatments at 30 DAS, but treatment effects became significant at later growth stages. The weed-free treatment consistently produced the greatest plant height and dry-matter accumulation, while several integrated weed-management treatments were statistically comparable for selected observations. The weed-free treatment also recorded the highest number of filled pods, total pods, and seeds per pod, whereas the weedy check generally showed poorer growth and reproductive performance. The number of unfilled pods and 100-seed weight were not significantly affected by the treatments. Overall, sustained weed suppression during critical crop-growth stages improved soybean growth and important yield-attributing characters under the conditions of the experiment.