Effect of integrated weed management practices on yield and quality of onion (Allium cepa L.)

Abstract

Weed in onion field is a big problem causing yield loss and also need special care that increases cost of cultivation. Among the various options available for eradicating weed problem an experiment on integrated weed manage-ment (IWM) practice was conducted during the Rabi season of 2016-17 at Horticultural Research Farm, Department of Horticulture, Babasaheb Bhim-rao Ambedkar University, Lucknow with an aim to find out a suitable feasible method for the onion field at this area. The experiment was conducted in Randomized Block Design with nine treatments [Control, Hand weeding at 20 & 40 DAT, Weed free, Oxyfluorfen @ 100 g ai/ ha, Pendimethalin @ 750 g ai/ha, Agil @ 100 gi/ha, Oxyflurfen@100 g ai/ha + Hand weeding at 40 DAT, Agil @ 100 g ai/ ha+Hand weeding at 20 DAT, Oxyflurfen @ 100 g ai/ha + Agil @ 100 g ai/ha] and three replications. Minimum fresh weight and dry weight of weed at 90 DAT was recorded by weed free condition, which also increase buld yield and quality parameters recording higher bulb weight (95.72 g), bulb yield (302.67q/ha), bulb diameter (6.48 cm), number of scales per bulb (8.40) and better quality parameters like recording maximum ascorbic acid (12.07), TSS (12.90), total sugars (18.30), reducing sugars(8.51) and non-reducing sugars (9.76) followed by application of Pendimethalin @750g a.i./ha. Thus, it is concluded that weed free condition is the best for onion pro-duction.