Nutrients Supplementation through Organic Manures Influence the Growth of Weeds and Maize Productivity.

Dibakar Ghosh,Marian Brestic,Koushik Brahmachari,Sukamal Sarkar,Hirofumi Saneoka,Celaleddin Barutcular,Biswajit Pramanick,Nirmal Kumar Dinda,Shah Fahad,Ayman El Sabagh,Milan Skalicky,Anupam Das,Muhammad Ali Raza,Akbar Hossain,Debojyoti Moulick

doi:10.3390/molecules25214924

Abstract

Declining rate of productivity and environmental sustainability is forcing growers to use organic manures as a source of nutrient supplement in maize farming. However, weed is a major constraint to maize production. A field study was carried out over two seasons to evaluate various integrated nutrient and weed management practices in hybrid maize. The treatment combinations comprised of supplementation of inorganic fertilizer (25% nitrogen) through bulky (Farmyard manure and vermicompost) and concentrated (Brassicaceous seed meal (BSM) and neem cake (NC)) organic manures and different mode of weed management practices like chemical (atrazine 1000 g ha−1) and integrated approach (atrazine 1000 g ha−1 followed by mechanical weeding). Repeated supplementation of nitrogen through concentrated organic manures reduced the density and biomass accumulation of most dominant weed species, Anagalis arvensis by releasing allelochemicals into the soil. But organic manures had no significant impact on restricting the growth of bold seeded weeds like Vicia hirsuta and weed propagated through tubers i.e., Cyperus rotundus in maize. By restricting the weed growth and nutrient removal by most dominating weeds, application of BSM enhanced the growth and yield of maize crop. Repeated addition of organic manures (BSM) enhanced the maize grain yield by 19% over sole chemical fertilizer in the second year of study. Application of atrazine as pre-emergence (PRE) herbicide significantly reduced the density of A. arvensis, whereas integration of mechanical weeding following herbicide controlled those weeds which were not usually controlled with the application of atrazine. As a result, atrazine at PRE followed by mechanical weeding produced the highest maize grain yield 6.81 and 7.10 t/ha in the first year and second year of study, respectively.

Highlights

Maize (Zea mays L.) is the third most important cereal crop across the globe
At the early crop growth stage (30 days after sowing (DAS)), different nutrient management practices had no significant impact on weed density except on C. rotundus in both the years (Figure 1 and Table 1)
The integrated approach, i.e., PRE herbicide followed by mechanical weeding at 30 DAS, performed significantly better in reducing the density of C. rotundus and V. hirsuta at 60 DAS compared to the sole chemical approach

Summary

Introduction

Maize (Zea mays L.) is the third most important cereal crop across the globe. The importance of maize lies in its wide range of industrial uses, besides serving as human food and animal feed.It can be grown throughout the year due to its photo-insensitive nature and the highest genetic yield potential [1]. Maize (Zea mays L.) is the third most important cereal crop across the globe. The importance of maize lies in its wide range of industrial uses, besides serving as human food and animal feed. It can be grown throughout the year due to its photo-insensitive nature and the highest genetic yield potential [1]. Together with rice and wheat, make up at least 30% of the food demand to people of 94 developing countries [2]. In India, maize is grown in 9.2 million ha, with an annual production of about 24 M tons [3]. Maize exhausts a considerably higher amount of nutrients from soil as compared to other cereals [4]

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Discussion

Conclusion