Effect of Weed Management and Biochar on Productivity of Fenugreek Trigonella foenum graecum L and their Residual Effect on Succeeding Summer Fodder Maize Zea mays L

Abstract

newline A field investigation entitled Effect of Weed Management and Biochar on Productivity of Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) and their Residual Effect on Succeeding Summer Fodder Maize (Zea mays L.) was conducted at Instructional Farm, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Udaipur (Rajasthan) during rabi and summer seasons of 2021-22 and 2022-23. The experiment comprised of eight weed management treatments viz., oxadiargyl 100 g ha-1 PE, oxadiargyl 120 g ha-1 PE, oxyfluorfen 100 g ha-1 PE, oxyfluorfen 120 g ha-1 PE, imazethapyr 70 g ha-1 PE, imazethapyr 100 g ha-1 PE, weed-free and weedy check and three biochar levels viz., control, biochar 1 t ha-1 and biochar 2 t ha-1, thereby involving 24 treatment combinations replicated thrice in factorial randomized block design. Fenugreek variety PRM 45 was used as test crop and crop was raised as per package of practices recommended for agro climatic zone IVa of Rajasthan. Fenugreek crop was followed by summer fodder maize (Pratap Makka Chari-6) was grown to determine the residual effect of the treatments used in the previous crop. newlineAll the weed management treatments caused significant reduction in weed density of narrow-leaved, broad-leaved and total weeds as well as their dry matter accumulation at various growth stages compared to weedy check. Among herbicidal treatments, pre-emergence application of oxyfluorfen 120 g ha-1 recorded significantly lowest total weed density (44.46, 42.11 and 49.35 m-2, respectively) and weed dry matter (9.90, 71.22 and 147.35 g m-2, respectively), highest weed control efficiency (78.28, 81.99 and 81.19%, respectively) at 30, 60 DAS and at harvest and lowest amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium (10.26, 2.07 and 12.29 kg ha-1, respectively) removal by total weeds at 60 DAS. The plant height, dry matter accumulation plant-1, number of branches plant-1, number of effective nodules plant-1 and their dry weight plant-1 and chlorophyll ( a , b and total) content as well as yield attributing characters viz., number of pods p