Department of Agronomy, CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur-176 062, (H. P.), India.
A field experiment was conducted during winter seasons of 2002–03 and 2003–04 to study the effect of clodinafop and row spacing on weed management and productivity of Gobhi sarson (Brassica napus var. oleracea). An effective control of grassy weeds and broad-leaved weeds was obtained particularly with clodinafop 75 g/ha (post.) with sequential application of pendimethalin 0.75 kg/ha (pre.) fb. clodinafop 45 g/ha (post.) and with pendimethalin 1.5 kg/ha (pre.). These herbicides significantly reduced the total weed dry matter and count and were statistically at par with hand weeding twice and resulted in yield comparable to hand weeding twice. The per cent increase in the yield due to hand weeding, clodinafop 75 g/ha (post.), sequential application of pendimethalin 0.75 kg/ha (pre.) fb. 0.45 g/ha (post.) and pendimethalin 1.5 kg/ha (pre.) was 130.4, 125.4, 127.9 and 119.4, respectively, over unweeded check. Sowing of gobhi sarson at closer row spacing of 20 cm also resulted in significantly higher seed yield and lower count and dry matter of grassy, broad-leaved and total weeds thereby resulting in higher weed control efficiency over 30 cm row spacing.
