PJB-2018-378
RESPONSE OF BITTER GOURD TO CULTURAL AND CHEMICAL WEED CONTROL METHODS
Zahid Hussain
Abstract
The two field trials were carried out at the Horticultural farm of the University of Agriculture Peshawar in the years of 2012 and 2013 in order to assess the effect of various weed control methods in bitter gourd. The treatments for each year comprised of four mulches i.e. Silybum marianum, Rumex crispus, saw dust, and newspapers, along with a herbicide (pendimethalin) applied as pre-emergence, a hand weeding and a weedy check for comparison. The data were collected on biomass of weeds (kg ha-1), number of bitter gourd plants ha-1 and on fruit weight (g) plant-1 of bitter gourd. The parameters were significantly affected by the applied treatments during both the years. Weed biomass in 2012 and 2013 was the highest (2971 and 3595 kg ha-1), respectively in the weed control plots and lowest in hand weeded plots (68 and 83 kg ha-1), respectively. Moreover the effects of the mulch and the herbicide were statistically different from the weed control but at par with each other. The highest number of plants ha-1 (9773 and 8077) and fruit weight plant-1 (756 and 657 g) were recorded in the hand weeded treatments in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Hand weeding was followed by the treatment of Stomp 330 EC with the respective values in the two years as 8834 and 7301 plants ha-1, and 667 and 580 g plant-1 in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Moreover, in comparison with the weedy control, the mulching treatments performance was significant. Mulches of S. marianum and R. crispus reduced the weed biomass to 1072 and 1615 kg in 2012 and 1297 and 1954 kg in 2013 as compared to the weedy control with weed biomass of 2971 and 3595 kg ha-1 in 2012 and 2013, respectively. The respective no. of plants ha-1 for the mulches of S. marianum and R. crispus were 8548 and 8489 in 2012 and 7065 and 7016 in 2013 whereas and the fruit weight plant-1 was 435 and 396 in 2012 and 378 and 344 g in 2013. Keeping in view the good performance of weed biomass as mulches, the cost of production and the environmental safety, the hand weeding and herbicide use cannot be preferred alone for use as weed management tools. Therefore, the herbicide use and hand weeding should be used only on casual basis or in emergency; and the mulching methods should be adopted in the long run as mulching method is not only good for weed control but also for maintaining the soil fertility, moisture conservation, and environmental safety.
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