Weed competitive ability of field pea (Pisum sativum) cultivars with varying row spacing

Field experiment was conducted at Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh in sandy loam soil to study the effect of row spacing on weed density and weed dry matter production in field pea (Pisum sativum L.) cultivars. Asphodelus tenuifolius, Chenopodium album, Cynodon dactylon, Parthenium hysterophorus, Fumaria parviflora and Anagallis arvensis were the dominant weeds associated with the crop constituting 18.1, 34.7, 8.8, 21.3, 2.6 and 15.6% of total weed population, respectively. Tall cultivar ‘JP 885 ’was superior to dwarf cultivar ‘Sapna ’in respect of suppressing weeds and declining weed dry matter production substantially and thereby increasing biological and grain yield of field pea by 32.25 and 18.19%, respectively. Significant reductions in weed population as well as dry weight of weeds at 90 days after sowing (DAS) were observed with ‘JP 885 ’over cultivar ‘Sapna ’. Closer row spacing of 30 cm x 10 cm was very effective when judged in terms of reducing population of associated weeds and dry weight of weeds than medium and higher spacing. Row spacing of 30 cm x 10 cm and 40 cm x 10 cm being at par produced significantly more yield than rest of the spacing treatments. Thus, cultivar ‘JP 885 ’and ‘Sapna ’adopted with row spacing of 40 and 30 cm, respectively, recorded higher productivity of pea.