Abstract

Field experiments were conducted at the Agricultural College and Research Institute, Coimbatore to study the yield and economics of methods of weed control (hand weeding twice at 20 and 40 days after sowing (DAS), atrazine pre-emergence spray @ 0.5 kg ai/ha) and sowing (direct seeding and transplanting maize with 5 day old seedlings) and time of nitrogen application and their combined influence. Hand weeding twice at 20 and 40 DAS, transplanting of 5- day-old seedlings and application of nitrogen in three splits as 25% basal + 50% at knee high stage + 25% at tasseling stage recorded significantly higher yields, gross returns, net returns and benefit cost ratio.

Keywords: Nitrogen, Weed Control, Sowing, Maize, Yield, Economics.