EVALUATION OF HERBICIDE MIXTURES FOR WEED CONTROL IN MAIZE (Zea mays L.) UNDER MIDDLE GUJARAT CONDITIONS

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out to evaluate the herbicide mixtures for weed control in maize (Zea mays L.) under middle Gujarat conditions at College Agronomy Farm, Gujarat Agricultural University, Anand during Kharif seasons of 2001-2002 and 2002-2003. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with four replications. The treatments comprised of viz., atrazine, alachlor and metolachlor each @ 1.0 kg a.i./ha, metribuzin @ 0.30 kg a.i./ha, pendimethalin @ 0.5 kg a.i./ha and their feasible mixtures were applied at half of the rate, weed free (2 hand weeding at 20 & 40 days after sowing) and weedy check. It was observed that maximum weed control efficiency (> 98 %) was achieved with pre-emergence application of atrazine @ 0.5 kg a.i./ha in combination with pendimethalin @ 0.25 kg a.i./ha and atrazine + alachlor each applied @ 0.5 kg a.i./ha and twice hand weeding carried out at 20 and 40 DAS. Similar trend was observed in grain yield.