Studies on physio morphological attributes of crops and weeds as influenced by organic weed management practices in maize pea cropping system

Abstract

Studies were carried out in a long-term experiment in maize - peas cropping system newlineunder All India Coordinated Research Project on Weed Management (AICRP-WM) newlineduring October 2019 to September 2021 at Palampur. Ten weed control treatments newlinebased on T1-hoeing, T2-stale seed bed + hoeing, T3-raised stale seedbed + hoeing, T4- newlinemulch 5t ha-1 newline, T5-stale seed bed + mulch, T6- raised stale seed bed + mulch, T7- newlineintercropping of soybean in kharif and fenugreek in rabi, T8-crop rotation (alternating newlinesoybean - mustard with maize - peas), T9-intensive cropping (additional crops of newlinemustard in autumn and buckwheat in summer) and T10-chemical check newline(pendimethalin in rabi and atrazine in kharif) were evaluated in a randomized block newlinedesign with three replications. The weed flora were comprising of 14 species in rabi newline2019-20 and 11 in rabi 2020-21, 8 weed species during kharif 2020 and 15 in kharif newline2021. There was considerable change in weed species composition during the second newlineyear as compared to the first year. Diversity and phytosociological analysis revealed newlinediverse weed flora in the organic weed management treatments as compared to the newlinechemical check. Phenological study revealed extended periods of newlinegermination/emergence, flowering and fruiting. Rabi weeds emerged during October newlineto January and kharif during May to August, flowered and bore fruits/seeds during newlineMarch (rabi) and September (kharif) and reached maturity in April (rabi) and newlineSeptember (kharif), respectively. Yield, net income and net energy were significantly newlinehigher under RSSB + Hoeing/HW followed by crop rotation, however, chemical newlinecheck was at par to this treatment in the second year. Crop rotation also gave higher newlineprofitability over the check. The growth analysis parameter viz, CGR, AGR and RGR newlinefound to be significantly more in intercropping and crop rotation. newline