K. Pooja, P. Anandan, S. Natarajan, A. Sundari and K. Saravanan
Abstract
A field experiment was conducted during kharif season of 2024 at the Experimental Farm, Department of Agronomy, Annamalai University to study the non chemical weed management strategies for enhancing the productivity of rice (Oryza sativa L.). The experiment was laid out in a Split Plot Design (SPD) and replicated thrice. The treatments combination comprised three stale seed bed in the main plots- normal seed bed, stale seedbed for 7 days, and stale seedbed for 14 days and four weed management practices in the sub plots - hand weeding twice on 15 and 35 DAT, cono-weeding twice on 15 and 35 DAT, Azolla 250 Kg ha-1 on 3 DAT followed by cono-weeding on 35 DAT and weedy check. Both the stale seed bed and weed management practices significantly exerted lower weed density, weed dry weight of transplanted rice which increased the weed control efficiency. An increase in stale seed bed period has contributed the highest weed control efficiency and produced superior grain yield. Among the weed management practices, hand weeding twice at 15 and 35 DAT achieved the maximum weed control efficiency and yield, which was statistically on par with application of Azolla 250 kg ha-1 on 3 DAT followed by cono-weeding on 35 DAT.