COMPARATIVE EFFICACY OF DIFFERENT HERBICIDES FOR WEED MANAGEMENT IN LENTIL (Lens culinaris L.)

Abstract

Weeds are a major threat to global crop productivity and food security. Weeds compete with plants for applied inputs and resources and resultant cause a significant reduction in final productivity. A study was conducted at Agronomic Research Area, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. The study was comprised of two lentil varieties (Punjab Masoor-2009, Punjab Masoor-2020) and seven treatments i.e., weedy check (control), manual weeding, Pendimethalin 33 EC @ 247 ml ha^-1, S. metolachlor 960 EC @ 1976 ml ha^-1, Pendimethalin +S. metolachlor @ 2223 ml ha^-1, Flumetsulam 80 WG @ 18.525 g ha^-1 and Flumetsulam 80 WG @ 24.7 g ha^-1 arranged in RCBD design having 3 replications. According to the findings, different herbicides and cultivars had a substantial impact on growth and yield attributes of lentil. The maximum root fresh and dry weights (8.07, 1.57 g), shoot fresh and dry weights (20.08 and 5.28 g), plant height (62.05 cm), pods/plant (67.83), grains/pod (2), 1000 seed weight (25.17 g), grain yield (1934 kg ha^-1) and biological yield (3730 kg ha^-1) was recorded in manual weeding and lowest root fresh and dry weights (6.28 and 1.57 g), shoot fresh and dry weights (12.33 and 3.99 g), plant height (44.58 cm), pods/plant (42.83), grains/pod (1.17), 1000 seed weight (14.40 g), grain yield (1113 kg ha^-1) and biological yield (2830 kg ha^-1) was recorded in weedy check. In case of cultivars, Punjab Masoor-2020 had maximum root fresh and dry weights (7.90 and 1.81 g), shoot fresh and dry weights (17.17 and 5.02 g), plant height (54.99 cm), pods/plant (60.43), grains/pod (1.67), 1000 seed weight (21.09 g), grain yield (1690 kg ha^-1) and biological yield (3402 kg ha^-1) while cultivar Punjab Masoor-2009 had minimum root fresh weight (6.53 g), dry weight (1.68 g), shoot fresh weight (14.57), dry weight (4.62 g), plant height (53.09 cm), pods/plant (48.76), grains/pod (1.33), 1000 seed weight (18.44 g), grain yield (1586 kg ha^-1) and biological yield (3292 kg ha^-1). Manual weeding also resulted in lowest weeds density and weeds biomass and weedy check resulted in maximum weed density and weed biomass. Thus, it is concluded that cultivar Punjab Masoor-2020 along with manual weeding and use of Pendimethalin + S. metolachlor @ 2223 ml ha^-1 can be adopted to get maximum lentil production under warm semi-arid conditions of Faisalabad.