Performance of Different Phalaris minor Retz. Biotypes Growing with Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in Relation to Different Herbicides

The major factor responsible for reduction of the wheat production and productivity in India is infestation of wheat with problematic weeds. Introduction of high yielding dwarf wheat varieties changed the spectrum of weed flora from dominance of broadleaf weeds in the 1960s to mixed flora of broadleaf and grassy weeds in early 1970s and then the dominance of grass weeds especially, Phalaris minor in late 1970s. The chemical weed control, therefore, became a necessity event in late 1970s. Herbicides were introduced in 1979-80, weed flora changed in favor of complex weeds species in late 1980s and then again in favour of P. minor during the early 1990s and thereafter evolution of herbicide resistance was reported in major wheat growing areas.

The field experiment was conducted at experimental farm of the Department of Agronomy, Lovely Professional University Phagwara, Punjab during Rabi season of 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. To check the effectiveness of prominent herbicides viz. Axial 5 EC (pinoxaden) 50 g a.i/ha, Leader 75 WG (sulfosulfuron) 25 g a.i/ha, Total 75 WG (sulfosulfuron + metsulfuron) 30 g a.i/ha and ACM-9 (clodinafop+metribuzin) 174 g a.i/ha on the resistant population of Phalaris minor collected from different districts of Punjab. The experiment was laid out in split plot design having five main plots and four sub plots with four replications. Herbicides were applied at their recommended dose in main plots and four biotypes viz. B1-Ferozepur, B2- Ropar, B3- Fazilka, B4- Ludhiana in sub plots. Herbicides were applied as post emergence at 35 days after sowing.

Our investigation reveals that among all the herbicide treatments performance of ready mix (clodinafop+metribuzin) herbicide was satisfactory control the weeds. Whereas other tried herbicides are not able to control the tried biotypes except Fazilka. Fazilka biotype is sensitive to all the tried herbicides whereas other biotypes were sensitive to only clodinafop+metribuzin herbicide and shown their resistance to all other herbicides.