Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai during late rabi 2011 – 2012 to elucidate the effect of brown manuring on weed dynamics, available soil moisture and growth attributes of irrigated maize. The results revealed greater reduction in dryweight of grasses, sedges, broad leaved weeds and total weeds in PE alachlor 1.0 kg ha -1 + brown manuring at all the stages of crop and was at par with PE alachlor 1.0 kg ha -1 +daincha as intercrop with in-situ incorporation on 35 DAS. Available soil moisture content, was more with PE alachlor 1.0 kg ha-1 + brown manuring followed by PE alachlor 1.0 kg ha-1 +daincha as intercrop with in-situ incorporation irrespective of depth of soils and stages of crop. The above two treatments also had equal effect in enhancing the growth attributes such as plant height, plant DMP and LAI at 20 and 40 DAS. Whereas, at 60 DAS, PE alachlor 1.0 kg ha -1 + brown manuring was superior in increasing growth attributes of irrigated maize.

Keywords: Irrigated maize, Brown manuring, weed dry weight, available soil moisture, growth attributes.