Nutrient uptake by chickpea + mustard intercropping system as influenced by weed management

A field experiment was consisted of four intercropping systems, viz. sole chickpea, sole mustard, chickpea + mustard (additive series) and chickpea + mustard (replacement series) and six weed management practices viz. weedy check, weed free, pendimethalin 1 kg/ha as pre-emergence (PE), fluchloralin 1 kg/ha as pre-plant incorporation (PPI), isoproturon 0.75 kg/ha as post-emergence (POE) and quizalofop-ethyl 50 ml/ha as post-emergence. These treatments were evaluated under split plot design with three replications. Results revealed that sole stands of chickpea and mustard removed highest amount of N, P and K which were followed by additive series and replacement series whereas among the weed management practices, highest amount of N, P and K was removed by weed free treatment followed by pendimethalim 1kg/ha and fluchloralin 1 kg/ha while the lowest N, P and K was removed by isoproturon 0.75 kg/ha followed by quizalofop-ethyl 50 ml/ha. Among the different intercropping treatments, weeds removed significantly highest N, P and K from sole mustard followed by sole chickpea, replacement series and additive series. Among weed management practices, the uptake of N, P and K in weeds was found to be significantly less in all the weed management practices as compared to weedy check treatment.