Effect of stale seedbed method and weed management on growth and yield of irrigated direct-seeded rice

A field experiment was conducted at Agricultural Research Farm of Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi to study the effect of methods of rice establishment and weed management practices in irrigated direct seeded rice. Treatment comprised of three crop establishment methods, viz. dry seeding after land preparation using stale seed bed method by shallow ploughing or by glyphosate 1 kg/ha, puddled wet seeded in main plot and five weed control measures in subplot, viz. weedy, hand weeding at 15 and 30 DAS, pendimethalin 1 kg/ha pre emergence followed by 2,4-D EE 500 g/ha at 30 DAS, butachlor 1 kg/ha pre-emergence followed by 2,4-D 500 g/ha, fenoxaprop-p-ethyl with safener 56 g/ha 15 DAS followed by ethoxy sulfuron 18 g/ha at 20 DAS in a split plot design replicated thrice. Crop establishment methods did not influence rice growth and yield components, and yield. Irrespective of method of establishment, hand weeding twice was found to be superior in managing weeds in DSR than all sequentially applied herbicide treatments.