Efficacy of pre-emergent herbicides against diverse weed flora in wheat crop in Northern Transition Zone of Karnataka in South India

A field experiment was carried out at All India Coordinated Wheat and Barley Improvement Project (AICW&BIP), Main Agricultural Research Station, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka during Rabi season of 2021-22 and 2022-23. The weed free plot recorded significantly, higher growth and yield attributes, viz. plant height, lower lodging score, higher number of effective tillers, number of grains per spike, thousand grain weight, grain, straw and biological yields followed by pendimethalin + metribuzin 1250 + 280 g/ha PE tank mix. The pendimethalin + metribuzin 1250 + 280 g/ha PE tank mix recorded significantly lower total number of weeds (5.66, 6.96 and 4.57/m²), total dry weight of weeds (2.26, 6.24 and 10.38 g/m²), higher weed control efficiency (74.68, 62.48 and 61.07%) at 30, 60 and 90 DAS, respectively and lower weed index (2.64%) as compared to weedy check plot.