71. Weeds in wheat crop: weed whole plants nutrient concentration and uptake under fertilizer application and irrigation frequencies

Abstract

Weeds infestation in cereal crops is the one of main biotic stresses because in its presence crop cannot utilize effectively the available resources like moisture, nutrients and sun light. So, this study was aimed to quantify weeds trait and weed whole plants nutrient concentration and uptake in weed infested plots under wheat crop. Under the two separate experiments, the fertilizer rates and irrigation frequencies were integrated with weed management practices (data not provided) but weeds were allowed to grow in the control plots and the data were collected only from these weed infested plots analysed using descriptive statistics. Thirteen weeds species were recorded. Under NPK fertilizer application, maximum weed biomass (5916.7 kg ha^-1), weed density (166.67 m^-2), weed frequency (6.5%), weed whole plants NPK concentration (1.64, 0.23 and 1.80%) and NPK uptake (101.15, 14.36 and 112.25 kg ha^-1) were recorded in plot when 205-110-50 kg NPK ha^-1 was applied in weed infested plots. In case of irrigation frequencies, higher maximum weed biomass (5487.3 kg ha^-1), weed density (163.0 weeds m^-2), weed frequency (7.50 %), weed whole plants NPK concentration (1.24, 0.28 and 1.86%) and NPK uptake (63.5, 12.91 and 90.1 kg ha^-1) were found in plot when 6 irrigations were applied. while positive and significant correlation was observed between weed biomass and weed whole plants NPK upake under both experiment. From this study it was inferred that the applied fertilizer and irrigation gave more benefits to weed at the cost of wheat because weeds are more competitor than crop.

Keywords: Fertilizer; Irrigation frequencies; Weeds; Wheat; Weed crop competition; Weeds nutrients uptake

http://dx.doi.org/10.19045/bspab.2019.80116