Weed management in wheat by pre-emergence and pre-mix post-emergence combinations of herbicides

Field investigation was carried out at Akola, Maharashtra during three consecutive Rabi season of 2016-2017, 2017-18 and 2018-19 to assess the efficacy of herbicide combinations in wheat. Treatments comprised of twelve different preemergence and pre-mix combinations of post-emergence herbicides. Results revealed that pre-mix post-emergence application (PoE) of clodinafop propargyl + metsulfuron-methyl 0.06 + 0.004 kg/ha at 35 DAS and sulfosulfuron + metsulfuron-methyl 0.03 + 0.002 kg/ha at 35 DAS gave higher weed control efficiency (90 and 80%) and lower weed index (2.85 and 2.98%). These proved as effective as weed free treatment and recorded significantly higher grain yield of 4.37 and 4.36 t/ha, respectively over rest of the treatments. The highest net monetory returns and B:C ratio (64356/ha, 3.69) were registered with application clodinafop-propargyl + metsulfuron-methyl 0.06 + 0.004 kg/ha at 35 DAS followed by sulfosulfuron + metsulfuron-methyl 0.03 + 0.002 kg/ha at 35 DAS. (62162/ha and 3.40).