Organic mulches for weed management in homesteads

A field experiment was conducted at Agronomy Farm, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara to compare the efficiency of mulches including such by-products for weed management. The treatments included mulching with mango leaves, mulching with coconut leaves, mulching with fresh weeds, mulching with paddy straw, mulching with paper, mulching with black polythene sheet, hand weeding, pre emergence spraying of pendimethalin 1.0 kg/ha and unweeded control. Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench.), an important vegetable crop grown in homesteads throughout the year was used as the test crop. The results indicated that mulching with black polythene sheet was better in controlling weeds and gave the highest yield of 15.6 t/ha. Among various organic mulches tried, mulching with mango leaves gave higher fruit yield of 10 t/ha followed by mulching with paper (9.37 t/ha). Compared to unweeded plots, there was significant improvement in yield in plots mulched with various organic mulches. The weed control efficiency at 30 days after sowing was the highest in plots with pre emergence spraying of pendimethalin 1.0 kg/ha (97.12%). Among mulched plots, mulching with black polythene sheet gave a weed control efficiency of 95.21% followed by mulching with paper (94.21%) and with mango leaves (90.77%).