EVALUATION OF VARIOUS HERBICIDES AND THEIR COMBINATIONS FOR WEED CONTROL IN WHEAT CROP

Abstract

A field experiment on weed control in wheat was conducted at Agriculture Research Institute, (Tarnab) Peshawar during 2008-09. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design, replicated three times, and consisted of 14 treatments including six herbicide treatments; fenoxaprop-P-ethyl (P), pinoxadan (A), bromoxynil+MCPA (B), trisulfuron (L), clodinafop-propargyl (T) and fluroxypur+MCPA (S) that were used individually; and in seven different combinations i.e. T+B, T+S, P+B, P+S, B+A, L+A and L+T, and one treatment was kept as weedy check for comparison. All the herbicide treatments provided significant control of weeds causing significant reduction in density of target weed flora and also significantly improved the grain yield in comparison with the weedy check. Highest mortality of weeds (90.7%) and maximum grain yield of 3925 kg ha-1 (with 30.25% increase in grain yield over weedy check) were recorded where clodinafop-propargyl and bromoxynil+MCPA were applied together. The weed population and grain yield in weedy check were 161 weeds m-2 and 2744 kg ha-1, respectively. However, no crop injury was observed in any of the herbicide treatments. Among the herbicides used alone, bromoxynil+MCPA produced the highest grain yield (3827 kg ha-1) increased over check by 28.29%. In light of the results, it is concluded that bromoxynil+MCPA in alone, and its combination with clodinafop-propargyl are most effective and best option for achieving a desirable weed control and increase in grain yield of wheat in irrigated conditions of Peshawar.