Productivity of cotton as influenced by different weed control measures in red and black soils

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during kharif, 2018 to identify chemical weed control package in cotton with diuron as preemergence herbicide at Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Rajendranagar. The experiment comprised of 7 treatments having varied doses of diuron 80% WP at 0.5 kg ha-1, 0.75 kg ha-1, 1.0 kg ha-1 and pendimethalin (1.0 kg ha-1) as preemergence application followed by postemergence application of pyrithiobac sodium (62.5 g ha-1) + quizalofop p ethyl 50.0 g ha-1. Non herbicidal treatments comprised of polyfilm, mechanical weeding (at 20 and 40 DAS) and unweeded control. The kapas and stalk yields were higher with polymulch and mechanical weeding in both red and black soils. Among the herbicidal treatments, diuron 0.75 kg ha-1 recorded highest kapas yield in both red and black soils while the higher stalk yield was recorded by pendimethalin in red soil and by diuron 0.5 kg ha-1 in black soil.