Assessment of integrated weed management practices on weed flora, flowering, corm yield and net returns in gladiolus cv. Pusa Srijana under Delhi conditions

Field experiments were conducted for two years (2014–15 and 2015–16) during winter season, at the Research Farm of the Division of Floriculture and Landscaping, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi to study the weed flora, plant growth and corm yield and net returns of gladiolus cv. Pusa Srijana as influenced by integrated weed management practices. All the weedcide treatments resulted in lower weed density, number of monocot as well as dicot weeds and two year's study indicated that treatment atrazine @.75 kg/ha pre-emergence + carfentrazone @ 0.03 kg/ha post-mergence at 40 DAS (T₃) recorded minimum number of dicot weeds (9.83) and was the best herbicide, whereas, minimum monocot weeds were recorded under the treatment of pendimethalin 1.0 kg/ha pre-emergence + dry grass residue 5.0 tonnes/ha (T₇) followed by pendimethalin 0.75 kg/ha + metribuzin 0.3 kg/ha (tank-mix) pre-emergence (T₉) which recorded (3.99) number of monocot weeds/m². The plant height, spike length, number of corms/ha and estimated net returns was received maximum with treatment i.e. pendimethalin 0.75 kg/ha + metribuzin 0.3 kg/ha (tank-mix) pre-emergence (T₉). The marketable spikes were received maximum with the application of metribuzin 0.4 kg/ha pre-emergence + dry grass residue 5.0 tonnes/ha (T₅), whereas, it was minimum under control (T₁₁). Thus, it is concluded that herbicide chemicals combined with IWM practices together are more effective than alone. The number of corms per hectare (1.20 lakh/ha) and net return (Rs. 2.63 lakh/ha) was recorded under treatment T₉i.e. application of pendimethalin 0.75 kg/ha + metribuzin 0.30 kg/ha (tank-mix) followed by treatment T₁₀i.e. weed free check (four hand weeding) which produced 1.19 lakh/ha corms and net return of 2.61 lakh/ha; besides obtaining broad spectrum weed control throughout the crop growth period.