Effect of weed-management practices on weed flora, soil micro-flora and yield of baby corn (Zea mays)

D. DUTTA; T.L. THENTU; D. DUTTAMUDI

doi:10.59797/ija.v61i2.4350

Authors

D. DUTTA
T.L. THENTU
D. DUTTAMUDI

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59797/ija.v61i2.4350

Keywords:

Baby corn yield, Economics, Nutrient removal, Soil micro-flora, Weed-control efficiency, Weed management

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out during the winter seasons of 201011 and 201112 at Jaguli, West Bengal, on sandy-clay loam soil, to study the effect of different weed-control methods on weed growth, soil-microbial popu- lations and productivity of baby corn (Zea mays L.). Besides weed-free check, the higher yield of baby corn (1,464 kg/ha) was recorded with 2 hand-weeding done at 20 and 40 days after sowing (DAS) owing to significantly lower weed dry weight, higher weed-control efficiency (88.32%), lower weed index (4.63%) and increased nutrient up- take than the other treatments. This treatment was followed by straw mulch @ 10 t/ha and increased the yield by 68.98% over weedy check. Integrated weed-management practices like pre-emergence atrazine or metribuzin @ 1 kg/ha coupled with 1 hand-weeding at 30 DAS exhibited superiority to the respective atrazine or metribuzin @ 2 kg/ha alone. Straw-mulch treatment showed the maximum favourable effect on growth of non-symbiotic N-fixing and phosphate-solubilizing bacteria of soil. After the initial suppression, the adverse effect of herbicides on the bacterial population was recovered from 25 DAS. The maximum net returns ( 43,470/ha) were obtained with hand-weeding twice, but the highest benefit: cost ratio (2.43) was recorded under atrazine-treated plots.

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