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EFFECT OF PLANTING GEOMETRY AND MULCHING ON MOISTURE CONSERVATION, WEED CONTROL ANDWHEAT GROWTH UNDER RAINFED CONDITIONS

ZAMMURAD IQBAL AHMED, MUHAMMAD ANSAR, MUHAMMAD IQBAL AND NASIR M. MINHAS

Abstract: The investigation to evaluate the effect of planting geometry and mulching on soil moisture, weed control and growth parameters of wheat under rainfed conditions was carried out at the University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi during rabi 2001-2002. The experiment comprised of three types of planting geometries i.e., 25 cm apart single rows, 40 and 55 cm apart double and triple row strips, respectively. Wheat straw mulch i.e., 1, 2, 3 and 4 t ha^-1 was compared against control. The results obtained indicated that mulching treatments had significantly increased soil moisture contents at tillering (6-21 %), booting (4-16 %) and grain (2-24 %) formation stage when mulch rate increased from 1 to 4 t ha^-1 compared to control treatment.  Similarly, the increase in mulch rate from 1 to 4 t ha^-1 wheat straw when compared with control, progressively increased the emergence count (24-42 %), number of tillers (26-52 %), plant height (10 -37 %) and reduced the weed biomass (3-17 %). This indicated that emergence counts, plant height, number of tillers were directly proportional to the mulching material while weed biomass was inversely proportional to it. The planting geometry and interaction between mulching and planting geometry had non-significant effect on moisture contents through out the crop growth period except at tillering stage where maximum moisture contents recorded 16.80 % when 4 tones wheat straw mulch was applied in combination with 40 cm apart double row strip planting.

University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.