Cultural, mechanical and chemical weed control in wheat

Effective weed control in wheat crop promises attractive grains harvest and subsequent food security in Pakistan. The objective of this study was to evaluate cultural (stale seed bed and double seed rate), mechanical (bar harrow, hand hoeing and hand pulling) and chemical weed control (bromoxynil+MCPA, fenoxaprop-p-ethyl, and a combination of both] for managing weeds and improving yield in wheat crop. Weed control methods varied in suppressing weeds and improving grain yield of wheat. A combined spray of bromoxynil+MCPA and fenoxaprop-p-ethyl (450 + 937.5 g a.i. ha-1, respectively) was the most effective treatment in suppressing weeds and increasing wheat yield followed by the application of fenoxaprop-p-ethyl (937.5 g a.i. ha-1). Plant height, spike length and grains per spike were not affected by the weed control treatments. Productive tillers were recorded maximum in double seed rate treatment due to higher seed rate. Cultural control (stale seed bed and double seed rate) possessed more than 60% decrease in weeds proliferation and subsequent 24% increase in grain yield over control. Mechanical weed control (bar harrow, hand hoeing and hand pulling) had reduced weeds biomass by 64-72% and increased grain yield over 29%. Chemical weed control was most effective in suppressing weeds, hence presenting a 70.2-87.6 reduction in total weeds density and 45.4-57.9 increase in grain yield over control. In conclusion, albeit the chemical weed control was most effective in suppressing weeds and improving yield, yet the cultural and mechanical weed control also offered rational weed suppression and yield improvement and can be opted where the herbicides are in short supply or under the organic farming systems.