Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

EFFECT OF PLANTING GEOMETRY AND WEED MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON CROP GROWTH AND YIELD OF DIRECT SEEDED (AEROBIC) RICE (ORYZA SATIVA L.)

Neeshu Joshi*, V.P. Singh, V.C. Dhyani, S.P. Singh and Tej Pratap

Abstract

To evaluate the performance of direct seeded rice under different planting geometry and weed management practices, a field experiment was conducted at Crop Research centre of GBPUAT, Pantnagar during the kharif 2013. Three planting geometry (continuous drilling at 20cm, 20cm x 10cm, 25cm x 25cm) and four weed management practices (Pendimethalin (1kg a.i. ha-1 3 days after sowing (DAS)) + one hand weeding at 30 days after sowing (DAS), Pendimethalin (1kg a.i. ha-1 3 days after sowing) + bispyribac-Na (25g a.i. ha-1 28 days after sowing) + one hand weeding at 45 days after sowing and bispyribac-Na (25g a.i. ha-1 28 days after sowing) + one hand weeding at 45days after sowing and weedy check, were included in the trial. Results indicated that maximum leaf area index observed in narrow spacing (continous drilling at 20cm) and weed control practice, Pendimethalin (1kg a.i. ha-1) + bispyribac-Na (25g a.i. ha-1) + one hand weeding at 45 DAS. The response of rice yield and its components like number of productive tillers, total number of tillers, plant height, crop dry matter differed significantly under the influence of planting geometry and weed management practices. These treatments furnished grain yield of 3.50 t ha-1 and 4.8 t ha-1 and net benefit (‘. 40576 and ‘.40633 ha-1), respectively which were significantly higher than other treatments.