Author(s):

Vishalini R, D Rajakumar, M Joseph and M Gomathy

Abstract: Non chemical weed management practices are gaining significance in the recent past due to their scope in organic farming. A field experiment was conducted at the Department of Agronomy, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Killikulam to study the efficiency of non chemical weed management practices in irrigated finger millet. The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design (FRBD). The treatments consisted of mulching as main factor which included rice straw, shredded coconut waste and a control as treatments. The sub factor included intercrops viz., black gram, small onion, palak, coriander and a control without intercrops. Non chemical weed management treatments lowered total weed density and weed dry weight significantly as compared to unweeded control. Mulching with rice straw mulch at 30 and 45 DAS significantly lowered the total weed density as well as weed dry weight and was on par with shredded coconut waste mulch. The lowest weed density was recorded under small onion intercropping (I₃) and was on par with palak (I₄) and balack gram (I₁) treatments. The combination of rice straw mulch with small onion intercrop had effective control over the weeds. Apart from small onion, rice straw mulch with palak and rice straw mulch with black gram were found to record reduced weed densities with their broad leaved canopy structure.

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