Growth and Yield of Maize (Zea mays L.) as Influenced by Integrated Weed Management under Temperate Conditions of North Western Himalayas

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at Experimental Station of CSIR-IIIM, Srinagar, J&K, India during kharif 2013 and 2014. The experiment was laid in a randomized block design with 4 weed management practices viz., W0=  No weeding, W1 = Hand weeding 20 and 50 days after sowing, W2 = atrazine @ 1.0 kg a.i ha-1 PRE + hand weeding 20 days after sowing and W3 = atrazine @ 1.0 kg a.i ha-1 PRE + Isoproturon @ 1.0  kg a.i ha-1 POST. The results revealed that weed management practices W2 at par with W3 significantly improved plant height, number of functional leaves, leaf area index and dry matter production at different growth stages as compared to W0, whereas W2 took significantly more number of days for the crop to reach different phenological stages over rest of the treatments including control during both years of study. Similarly, W2 being at par with W3 recorded significant improvement in all yield contributing characters over W1 and W0. Both grain and stover yields were also significantly higher with W2 over W1 and W0. Significantly higher biological yield and harvest index was recorded with W3 as compared to the rest of treatments during both the years of experimentation.