Management of weeds in summer maize (Zea mays L.) by pre and post emergence herbicides

• Published in: Plant Science Today
• Main Authors: Yoshitha, Sibbala, Sagar, Lalichetti, Reddy, M. Devender
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 30.01.2025
• ISSN: 2348-1900; 2348-1900
• DOI: 10.14719/pst.3209

Maize (Zea mays L.) is highly sensitive to weed infestation and management of weeds is the most difficult aspect of summer maize cultivation, leading to significant yield losses of maize fields. The lack of weed management in critical period of growth results in major losses. To address these issues, reducing actively growing weeds at various stages and improving the bio efficacy of herbicides is beneficial. In addition, due to the scarcity of farm labour and rising labour costs during crop growth, this study aims to investigate the impact of chemical weed management, specifically pre and post emergence herbicides, on maize. In this context, a study was conducted with 8 treatments viz., with 2 pre-emergence and 4 post emergence herbicides, as well as hand weeding and a weedy check (control), with each treatment replicated 3 times in randomized block design. The results revealed that weed density and weed dry matter were considerably lower and weed control efficiency was higher, with the application of Atrazine at 1 kg a.i. ha-1 as Pre-emergence (PEA). The highest treatment remained on par with Tembotrione + Atrazine (1:10) at 750 g a.i. ha-1 during 20 and 40 DAS as Post emergence (PoETA) compared to other treatments except for manual weeding (MW). The higher growth, yield attributes and grain yield were obtained with application of Atrazine at 1 kg a.i. ha-1 as Pre-emergence (PEA) application and the highest treatment was comparable with Tembotrione + Atrazine (1:10) at 750 g a.i. ha-1 during 20 and 40 DAS as Post emergence (PoETA) over other treatments. This paper relates to the SDG of UN 1, 2, 4 and 15.