Efficacy of Sulfentrazone 39.6% and Pendimethalin as a Pre Emergence Application against Weed Spectrum of Soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during Kharif season of 2017 at the Research Farm, College of Agriculture, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. The seven treatments comprising of four doses of sulfentrazone (180, 360, 540 and 720 g/ha), application of pendimethalin (750 g/ha) as pre emergence, hand weeding twice at 20 and 40 days after sowing (DAS) including weedy check, were laid out in randomized block design with 3 replications. Results revealed that, Echinochloa colona (28.24%) was the dominant weed species closely followed by Commelina communis (24.42%). However, other monocot weed like Cyperus rotundus (15.56%) and dicots like Phyllanthus niruri (19.34%) and Euphorbia hirta (12.44%) were also found associated with soybean in less numbers. Application of T4- sulfentrazone at 720 g/ha as pre emergence arrested the weed growth remarkably and proved superior to its lower dose (180 g/ha) and application of pendimethalin 750 g/ha. The poor crop-weed competition due to effective control of weeds under this treatment resulted in higher weed control efficiency. Pre-emergence application of T4- sulfentrazone at 720 g/ha recorded maximum grain yield and was at par with other individual herbicides. Similarly, higher net returns and benefit: cost ratio were recorded in T4- sulfentrazone at 720 g/ha fb T3- sulfentrazone at 540 g/ha. It may be inferred from the present investigation that these herbicidal treatments could be used effectively as an alternative for controlling weeds and obtaining optimum seed yield of soybean.