Drying of foliage of summer and Kharif mungbean at maturity with paraquat for facilitating combine harvesting

A field experiment was conducted during 2008 and 2009 on summer as well as kharif mungbean to explore the possibility of drying foliage with the herbicide paraquat for facilitating combine harvesting of the crop. Six treatments, namely, paraquat @ 0.24, 0.36, 0.48, 0.60 and 0.96 kg/ha and unsprayed control, were tested. Paraquat was applied at 80% of the pods matured by dissolving the herbicide in 500 litres of water per hectare. Drying of plant foliage increased with increase in the herbicide dose as well as period after spray. Spraying of paraquat @ 0.48 kg/ha dried the crop foliage (leaves and stems) effectively in 4 days after the spray. No herbicide residues were detected in the grains as well as straw when the crop was sprayed with as high dose of paraquat as 0.96 kg/ha. Therefore, when about 80% of the pods mature, paraquat @ 0.48 kg/ha can be spayed using 500 litres of water per hectare for drying the mungbean foliage.