P. BHASKER*, P. K. GUPTA, S. S. BORADE, C. TIWARI AND B. K. DUBEY
Department of Botany and Plant Physiology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University,
Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation, Regional Research Station,
Nashik-422 003 (Maharashtra), India
National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation, Regional Research Station,
Karnal-132 001 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail : bhaskarhau@gmail.com)
(Received : 10 June 2023; Accepted : 28 June 2023)
SUMMARY
Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] is adversely affected and competes by a number of weed species during all growth stages of crop and affects the yield. To minimize the weed infestation the present experiment was conducted to evaluate the integrated weed control methods in cowpea
on narrow and broad leave weed under All India Coordinated Research Project – Vegetable Crops (AICRP-VC) during Kharif, 2015 and 2016. The experiment was comprised of nine different treatments in which two herbicides pendimethalin and glyphosate, two types of mulching paddy straw as organic mulch and synthetic black polythene mulch and manual weeding methods were compared with weedy check. The results revealed that the highest plant growth and yield were recorded in weed free check followed by mulching with black polythene, the treatment mulching with black polythene efficiently controlled both broad as well as narrow leaved weeds. Due to the weed infestation the crop yield 54% was reduced in weedy check treatment. Among the herbicide treatments application of stale seed bed by glyphosate @ 1 kg ai/ha and one hand weeding at 40 DAS performed better and moderately controlled all types of weeds over weedy check. The results further revealed
that cent percent weed control efficiency was recorded in weed free check and mulching with black polythene and recorded a significant positive correlation with yield, while, the benefit: cost ratio is lower i.e. 1:1.50 and 1: 1.51, respectively. However, the herbicide treatments pre-emergence application of pendimethalin @ 0.75 kg ai/ha recorded highest benefit: cost ratio (1:1.84) followed by stale seed bed by glyphosate @ 1 kg ai/ha and one hand weeding at 40 DAS (1:1.80). Different weed management strategies consolidated enhanced the growth, yield and productivity of cowpea with higher net benefits to the growers. Therefore, based on the two years results concluded that the chemical weed management approaches alone or in combination with manual weeding is most propitious technique although the mulching with black polythene economically expensive, whereas recorded highest yield and reduces the all types of weed species as compare with all the weed management methods.
Key words: Cowpea, herbicide, integrated weed management, organic mulch, plastic mulch