INTEGRATED WEED MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN WHEAT

An experiment to study the impact of integrated weed management strategies in wheat was carried out at the Agronomic Research Area, Faculty of Agriculture, Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, during the year 2010-11. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications and ten treatments. The treatments included were one hoeing with kasola (after 1st irrigation), two hoeing with kasola (after 1st and 2nd irrigation), Puma Super (fenoxaprop-p-ethyl) @500 mL ha^-1 after 1st irrigation, weed free (hand pulling throughout the season), weedy check (control), 3- hoeing with khurpa (after 1st, 2nd and 3rd irrigation), Sonic @ 100 g ha^-1 after 1st irrigation, Puma Super @ 500 mL ha^-1 after 2nd irrigation, 3-hoeing with kasola (after 1st, 2nd and 3rd irrigation) and Buctril super (bromoxynil+MCPA) @500 mL ha^-1 at 60 days after sowing. The results revealed that application of herbicides and hoeing significantly affected weed biomass (g m^-2), number of tillers (m^-2), spike length (cm), 1000-grain weight (g), grain yield (t ha^-1) and biological yield (t ha^-1). Weed free crop throughout the season gave the highest grain yield (6.167 t ha^-1) and biological yield (11.42 t ha^-1). Among the herbicides used, Buctril super produced maximum grain yield (4.767 t ha^-1) and biological yield (9.953 t ha^-1). From the results obtained, it is concluded that both chemical and manual weed control methods gave excellent control of weeds but chemical control was found to be the easiest, time saving and effective method.