Assessment of Weed and Long-Term Nutrient Management Practices on Growth of Wheat under Semi-Arid Conditions of India

Abstract

An ongoing long-term experiment started since 1995 was selected during rabi season of 2021 22 at Research Farm of Department of Soil Science, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana (India) to study the effect of weed management practices in wheat under long term nutrient management practices. Experiment was laid out in Split Plot Design; consisted of 7 nutrient management treatments in main plot and 4 weed control treatments in subplot replicated thrice. Nutrient management treatments viz. N150+P60: Recommended N (150 kg/ha) & P (60 kg/ha), FYM15: FYM @ 15 tonnes/ha, FYM15+N150+P30: FYM @ 15 tonnes/ha + N (150 kg/ha) & P (30 kg/ha), PM5: Poultry manure @ 5 tonnes/ha, PM5+N150+P30: Poultry manure @ 5 tonnes/ha + N (150 kg/ha) & P (30 kg/ha), PMUD7.5: Press mud @ 7.5 tonnes/ha and PMUD7.5+N150+P30: Press mud @ 7.5 tonnes/ha + N (150 kg/ha) & P (30 kg/ha) were evaluated along with weed control treatments viz. pendimethalin @ 1.5 kg/ha (PRE), pendimethalin @ 1.5 kg/ha (PRE) fb clodinafop + metsulfuron methyl (RM) 64 g/ha, weedy and weed free. Under nutrient management, FYM15+N150+P30 recorded the highest plant height (22.5, 54.2, 94.4, 101.0 cm), dry matter and LAI (65.3, 427.8, 838.8, 1300 g/m² and 0.65, 4.11, 6.43, 4.27) at 30, 60, 90, 120 DAS, respectively and tillers (578, 541, 507 m⁻² at 60, 90, 120 DAS, respectively), followed by PMUD7.5+N150+P30 and PM5+N150+P30, while PMUD7.5 remained lowest. Under weed management, weed-free plots showed maximum plant height (21.3, 52.3, 91.0, 101.7 cm), dry matter (61.8, 363.1, 712.0, 1112 g/m²), LAI (0.62, 3.49, 5.45, 3.62), respectively, and tillers (493, 462, 433 m⁻²), respectively, whereas weedy check recorded the minimum values. Application of FYM15+N150+P30 combined with pendimethalin @ 1.5 kg/ha (PRE) fb clodinafop + metsulfuron methyl (RM) 64 g/ha recorded highest crop growth.