Abstract

An experiment was conducted to find out the effect of crop weed competition on growth and yield of mulberry during 2010-11 at Department of Sericulture, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore. The pooled data of two crops revealed that weed free period of 75 days improved plant height (119.4 cm), number of shoots per plant (13.10), number of leaves per plant (138.8), leaf area per plant (4825cm2) and dry weight per plant (22.85g) significantly as compared to weed free period of either 60 days or less and weedy check. Consequently, leaf yield of mulberry was significantly higher in plot kept free up to 75 days after pruning (6446kg/ha) as compared to other weed free period and weedy check. All the growth characters showed positive correlation with mulberry leaf yield.

Keywords: Mulberry, crop-weed competition, growth, yield.