Integration effect of drip irrigation and mulching on weeds and spring maize productivity

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out at Research Farm, Department of Agronomy, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana during spring season of 2020 and 2021. The experimental design was split-plot with three replications. The main plots included the combination of two methods of drip irrigation, viz. surface drip irrigation (SD) and sub-surface drip irrigation (SSD) and three mulch treatments, viz. plastic mulch (PM), straw mulch 6 t/ha (SM) and no mulch (NM) along with furrow irrigation (FI) as a control treatment. The sub-plots consisted of four weed control treatments, viz. pre- emergence application (PE) of atrazine 1000 g/ha, hand weeding twice at 30 and 60 days after seeding (DAS), weed free and weedy check. The dominant weed species were Cyperus rotundus, Oenothera laciniata, Chenopodium album, Coronopus didymus, Rumex dentatus, Digitaria sanguinalis, and Dactyloctenium aegyptium. The maize emergence was 6 days earlier under plastic mulch than the crop under straw mulch. The SD-PM, SD-SM, SSD-PM, SSD-SM and SSD- NM resulted in maximum maize plant height when compared to FI. SD-PM, SD-SM, SSD-PM and SSD-SM treatments recorded significantly lower total weed density and biomass at 30 DAS than the atrazine treated FI treatment. Maximum weed control efficiency of 88.89% was recorded under integration of drip irrigation with plastic mulch. Integration of drip irrigation and mulches resulted in significantly increased maize grain yield as compared to FI. Crop raised under SD- SM treatment resulted in 20.62% higher grain yield than FI. The integration of drip irrigation with mulching resulted in effective weed management and higher maize grain yield than furrow irrigation method.