Effect of herbicides on weed control and potato tuber yield under different tuber eye orientations

Abstract

Weed management and planting methods in potato cultivation affect the tuber yield and quality significantly, and hence, requires proper management. Therefore, to explore the possibilities of developing a pre-emergence (PE) herbicide application system for potato planter specially for cut seed pieces (tubers) a study was conducted at ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research (DWR) during Rabi season of 2017–18 and 2018–19. The study includes different sprout-eye orientation of the potato tubers along with different weed management practices. The application of metribuzin at 0.75 kg/ha as PE effectively controlled the weeds and obtained a weed density of 2.43 and 2.04 weeds/m2 and weed dry biomass of 1.35 and 1.64 g/m2 respectively at 25 and 55 DAP. By application of the metribuzin as PE and paraquat as early-post emergence (PoE), the tuber yield was increased from 9–16.5%. The sprout-eye orientation has significant effect on tuber yield. The tuber yield was reduced by 28.3% and 16.7% respectively, in 270° sprout-eye orientation and random dropping over sprout-eye orientation of 90±30°. The highest tuber yield of 28.4 t/ha was obtained in planting of whole tuber having the size of 40 to 50 g per tuber. The application of metribuzin as PE effectively controlled the weeds, thus a PE applicator system can be developed along with the potato planter.