Effect of Different Weed Management Methods on Growth and Yield of Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn) Cultivars under the Foot Hill Conditions of Nagaland

Investigation entitled “Effect of different weed management methods on growth and yield of finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn) cultivars under the foot hill conditions of Nagaland” was undertaken at the Experimental Farm, Department of Agronomy, SASRD, Nagaland University during Kharif season, June to October 2019. The experiment was laid out in Split Plot Design with three replications including five finger millet varieties viz.,V1-GPU 66, V2 -GPU 67, V3-VL 352 ,V4-VL 376 and V5-VR 847 and four weed management practices viz., W1: Weedy check, W2: PE of pendimethalin @ 1 kg ha-1 fb one hoeing at 30 DAS, W3: PE of pendimethalin @ 1 kg ha-1 fb mulching at 10-15 DAS and W4: PE of pendimethalin @ 1 kg ha-1 fb 2,4-D @ 0.75 kg ha-1 at 25-30 DAS. Results revealed that growth parameters such as plant height (cm), CGR (g m-2 day-1), RGR (g g-1 day-1) etc., and yield attributes viz., grain yield (1789.8 kg ha-1), straw yield (4959.0 kg ha-1) and harvest index (27.0%) were higher with the variety V4-VL 376. Among different weed management practices treatment W4: PE of pendimethalin @ 1 kg ha-1fb 2,4-D @ 0.75 kg ha-1 at 25-30 DAS recorded higher growth attributes, yield attributes and yield at all stages of crop. Among weed observations Cynodon dactylon, Digitaria sanguinalis etc., were dominant lower weed density (2.5 no m-2 at 40 DAS) higher weed control efficiency (84.9% at 40 DAS) were recorded with the treatment W4 - pendimethalin @ 1 kg ha-1fb 2,4-D @ 0.75 kg ha-1 at 25-30 DAS. Lower weed index (16.1%) was recorded with the treatment W2: PE of pendimethalin @ 1 kg ha-1fb hoeing at 30 DAS.

Mallepu S. Likhitha Reddy1, T. Gohain2 and Khrawbor Dkhar*3 Click here to download file

Research Article | Published online : 08-Jul-2024