Weed management in sugarcane ratoon crop

A field experiment was conducted on ratoon crop of sugarcane to develop suitable weed management practices during spring seasons of2008-09, 2009–10 and 2010–11 at Sugarcane Experimental Area, (Ladhowal), Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. A total of fourteen treatments including weedy check was tested in randomized block design with three replication. Herbicidal treatments were applied to ratoon crop immediately after harvesting of plant crop in the I^st week of February every year under moist conditions. The highest weed dry weight of 182.7 g/m² was recorded in weedy check. All the weed control treatments recorded significantly less weed dry weight as compared to the weedy check. The highest pooled cane yield of 74.3 t/ha was obtained with pre-emergence application of metribuzin 1.4 kg/ha fb 2,4-D 1.6 kg/ha at 45 days after ratoon initiation (DARI). The weed dry weight was significantly reduced to less than one third (54.3 g/m²) with preemergence application of metribuzin 1.4 kg/ha fb 2,4-D 1.6 kg/ha at 45 DARI compared to weedy check. Atrazine applied as pre-emergence at 2 kg/ha fb 2,4-D 1.0 kg/ha at 45 DARI proved equally effective as preemergence metribuzin 1.4 kg/ha fb 2,4-D 1.6 kg/ha at 45 DARI. In sugarcane ratoon crop, pre-emergence application of metribuzin 1.4 kg/ha fb 2,4-D 1.6 kg/ha at 45 DARI or atrazine 2 kg/ha fb 2,4-D 1.0 kg at 45 DARI gave net returns of ‘ 84,820/- and ‘ 84,497/- which was 61.7% and 61.1% higher over control, respectively.