Indian Journal of Weed Science

A field experiment was carried out at S.V. Agricultural College Farm, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India during Kharif seasons of 2022-23 and 2023-24 to determine weed management efficacy of herbicide mixtures in transplanted rice under varied nutrient levels and to identify the best option to realize higher rice productivity. Among three tested nutrient levels, 100% recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF) recorded the lowest weed density and biomass with higher weed control efficacy. Amongst weed management treatments, hand weeding twice at 20 and 40 days after transplanting (DAT) recorded significantly lower density and biomass of all weed categories and higher weed control efficiency, followed by pre-emergence application (PE) of triafamone + ethoxysulfuron (ready-mix) 67.5 g/ha followed by (fb) post-emergence application (PoE) of halosulfuron-methyl 67.7 g/ha + fenoxaprop-p-ethyl 60 g/ha (tank-mix) at 20 DAT, which was statistically comparable to bensulfuron-methyl + pretilachlor (ready-mix) 660 g/ha PE fb hand weeding at 40 DAT. The use of 150% RDF resulted in higher rice grain yield, straw yield, net returns and benefit cost ratio. Hand weeding twice at 20 and 40 DAT was statistically equivalent to triafamone + ethoxysulfuron (ready-mix) 67.5 g/ha PE fb halosulfuron-methyl 67.7 g/ha + fenoxaprop-p-ethyl 60 g/ha (tank-mix) PoE at 20 DAT.