| Abstrakt: |
To study the effect of different weed control practices on weeds and growth of chillies, an experiment was carried out at Agriculture Extension Department, Dargai Malakand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan during 2011. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design keeping three replications, and comprising of six treatments such as sorghum, wheat straw, and news papers as organic mulches, whereas black plastic as an inorganic mulch, in addition to a hand weeding and a weedy check. Chilli variety "Long Green" was selected for the experiment and sown in a plot size of 2.4 m x 3 m. All the treatments significantly affected the parameters of weed density m-2, fresh and dry weeds biomass; and yield components of chillies such as number of fruits plant-1, fruit length and economic yield. Highest weed density of 92 plants m-2, fresh weed biomass of 1987 kg ha-1 and dry weed biomass of 1041 kg ha-1 were recorded in the weedy check plots, and the values were statistically at par with those of wheat straw (73 plants m-2, 1521 kg and 890 kg ha-1, respectively) and news paper treatments (83 plants m-2, 1421 kg and 890 kg ha-1, respectively) bith used as organic mulches. Hand weeding resulted in the highest number of fruits plant-1 (58.1), fruit length (6.8 cm) and yield of chilli (8775 kg ha-1). Therefore, hand weeding resulted as the most effective treatment in terms of weeds suppression and yield enhancement of chilli crop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
