EFFECT OF PRE EMERGENCE HERBICIDES ON WEED CONTROL AND PERFORMANCE OF COWPEA IN SAMARU

Abstract

Field experiments were carried out in 2010 and 2011 cropping seasons at the Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria- Nigeria located on latitude110 11’, longitude70 38’ and 686m above sea level in Northern Guinea Savannah Ecological Zone to evaluate the effect of pre emergence herbicides on growth and yield parameters of cowpea. In this study, different pre emergence herbicides were compared for their efficiency on weed control of various weed species under rain- fed conditions in Nigeria. The different herbicides used are, S-metolachlor 960 EC @ the rate of 3.5 litre ha-1, pendimenthaline 33% (w/v) EC @ the rate of 3.5 liter ha-1 and Butalachlor E.C at the rate of 3.5Lha-1 . There was significant yield increase due to Application of pendimenthaline at 3.5 L ha-1 + Hand weeding of cowpea at 6WAS. There was significantly superior performances in terms of plant height, number of leaves per plant, number of branches per plant, number of pods per plant and grain yield ha1 . However Leaf area per plant and 100 – grain weight were not significantly influenced by the treatments. Of all the weed control methods, chemical weed control using pendimenthaline at 3.5 L ha-1 + Hand weeding at 6WAS, significantly gave better results than the other treatments on both growth and yield parameters.