SAFE WEED MANAGEMENT IN MAIZE

Abstract

Owing to the open vegetative canopy nature of maize plants, this allows provision of growth resources, i.e., nutrients, water and light, for other undesirable plants (weeds). Of course, this will increase the competitiveness of weeds as biotic stress, and hence, it should be controlled using effective and safe ways with the ecosystem in mind. For providing the weed management programs in maize with safe, applicable and economic ways, two field experiments during 2018 and 2019 were conducted. The experiment included fourteen treatments (cowpea, rice straw, sorghum extract (600 and 1200 mg L−1), sunflower extract (600 and 1200 mg L−1), foramsulfuron herbicide (1.35 and 1.80 L ha−1), sorghum extract (600 and 1200 mg L−1)+ foramsulfuron herbicide (1.35 and 1.80 L ha−1), sunflower extract (600 and 1200 mg L−1)+ foramsulfuron herbicide (1.35 and 1.80 L ha−1), hoeing, and weedy check). The treatments arranged in randomized complete block design with four replicates. Findings showed that hoeing was similar to cowpea, rice straw, foramsulfuron (1.35 or 1.80 L ha−1) in both seasons, in addition to sorghum extract (1200 mg L−1), sunflower extract (600 mg L−1), sorghum extract (600 mg L−1)+foram. (1.35 L ha−1) and sunflower extract (1200 mg L−1)+foram. (1.35 L ha−1) in the first season for recording the maximum reduction in total weeds biomass. The most stable practices for reducing nutrients uptake by weeds were hoeing, cowpea, rice straw and foramsulfuron herbicide, since these treatments achieved high reductions in nutrient uptake by weeds along the two seasons of 2018 and 2019. The most efficient treatments for enhancing maize grain yield in the first season were hoeing, foram. (1.35 L ha−1), sunflower extract (1200 mg L−1)+foram. (1.35 L ha−1), sunflower extract (600 mg L−1), sorghum extract (1200 mg L−1), cowpea, rice straw, and sorghum extract (600 mg L−1). In the second season, the highest values of grain yield were obtained with hoeing, cowpea, and rice straw. The economic analysis showed that chemical weed control using foramsulfuron herbicide was the cheapest practice for controlling weeds in maize. However, hoeing achieved the highest gross and net returns.