Assessing Effect of Weed management Practices on Physical Soil properties in An Acid Alfisol of Western Himalayas

Author: Neha Chauhan, Sanjay K. Sharma, S.S. Rana, Naveen Datt, Pardeep Kumar, Shabnam, Sakshi Vishvamitera, Deeksha Choudhary, Brij Vanita, Shivani Thakur, Gaytri Hetta, Sarwan Kumar and Nikhil Chauhan

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Abstract

An experiment on weed management was initiated from kharif 2019 to rabi 2020-21 in a maize– pea cropping system at the Experimental Farm of Department of Agronomy, Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur under the network of All India Coordinated Research Project on weed management since 2016. There were ten treatments viz. (T1: Hoeing; T2: SSB + Hoeing; T3: RSSB + Hoeing; T4: Mulching; T5: SSB + Mulching; T6: RSSB + mulching; T7: intercropping; T8: crop rotation; T9: intensive cropping and T10: chemical check) which were duplicated three fold in a randomized block design. The soil physical parameters viz. were analysed using standard analytical method. Among physical soil properties, the bulk density and particle density value was recorded highest in the chemical check (T10) and lowest in the treatment RSSB + Mulch (T6), whereas the properties viz. porosity, water holding capacity, saturated hydraulic conductivity, mean weight diameter recorded the highest values in the treatment RSSB + mulch (T6) followed by intercropping (T7) and the lowest values were observed in chemical check (T10).

Keywords

weed management, mulching, stale seed bed, physical properties, intensive cropping

Conclusion

The present study demonstrated that different organic weed management practices improved the soil physical properties over chemical check. The treatment RSSB + mulch resulted higher value of all soil physical properties in comparison to chemical check. Thus, it can be concluded that organic manures like FYM and vermicompost dominance over fertilizers and plays an important role to maintain soil physical health by improving soil physical properties.

References

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How to cite this article

Neha Chauhan, Sanjay K. Sharma, S.S. Rana, Naveen Datt, Pardeep Kumar, Shabnam, Sakshi Vishvamitera, Deeksha Choudhary, Brij Vanita, Shivani Thakur, Gaytri Hetta, Sarwan Kumar and Nikhil Chauhan (2023). Assessing Effect of Weed management Practices on Physical Soil properties in An Acid Alfisol of Western Himalayas. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(3): 78-84.