Effect of plant-based products on weed management in sunflower Vidyashree B.S.1,*, Arthanari P. Murali2 1University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka, India–580005 2Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and Principal Investigator, AICRP Weed Control, Tamil Nadu, India, 641003 *Corresponding author Email: bsvidyaagri5@gmail.com
Online published on 27 December, 2023. Abstract Field experiment conducted at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu during kharif 2019 to screen out the best among several plant based products viz., live mulching with sunhemp and navathaniyam (multi-varietal crops), dried sunflower stalk @ 4 t ha−1, farmer’s market vegetable waste @ 4 t ha−1, Terminalia chebula powder @ 400 kg ha−1, tamarind leaf mulch @ 4 t ha−1, mango leaves @ 4 t ha−1, eucalyptus leaves @ 7 t ha−1, teak leaves @ 4 t ha−1, rice husk @ 2 t ha−1, mustard seed powder @ 160 kg ha−1, neem leaves @ 2.5 t ha−1, Butea frondosa flowers and leaves @ 4 t ha−1, banana leaf mulch @ 7 t ha−1 and water hyacinth @ 4 t ha−1, evaluated against sunflower weeds, showed that the eucalyptus and mango leaves mulchin at 7 t ha−1 and @ 4 t ha−1, respectively were found significant in delaying the emergence of weeds upto 17 DAS and also were best in reducing the weed density, weed dry weight better plant growth and improved soil quality. The eucalyptus leaves were also found best in producing significantly higher dry matter production (630 kg ha−1) followed by mango leaves (628 kg ha−1) due to the allelopathic effect on weeds suppressing its growth and proliferation. Top Keywords Sunflower, Organic mulching, Allelopathy, Eucalyptus leaf mulch, Mango leaf mulch. Top |