Influence of Different Herbicide Based Weed Management Practices on Growth and Yield of Flue Cured Tobacco in Northern Light Soils of Andhra Pradesh, India

Flue cured tobacco requires clean and weed free environment and thereby reduce the competition for nutrients and moisture for achieving quick early season growth. Deploying effective weed management practices play a key role in achieving better yields and quality. Field experiments were conducted at Peddpauram village of West Godavari district (Andhra Pradesh) during (Rabi) seasons of 2018-19 and 2019-20, to study the effect of different herbicide based weed management practices on growth and yield of flue cured Tobacco crop. The experiment was performed as Randomized Block Design with 11 weed management practices replicated thrice. The results recorded on growth parameters, in both the years revealed that six inter cultivations with two manual removal of weeds significantly impacted plant height (113.5 cm and 114.4 cm) and leaf area index (2.63 and 2.83) at 90 DAT over Imazethapyr applied at 0.05 kg a.i ha-1. Number of leaves plant-1 were higher with six inter cultivation and two manual removal of weeds (21.5 and 20.6) over Imazethapyr 0.05 kg a.i ha-1. Inter cultivations and manual weeding resulted in significantly enhancing yield attributes such as leaf thickness (0.143 mm and 0.143 mm for cutters and 0.183 mm and 0.173 for leaf) and lower leaf count (Number of leaves kg-1) (137 and 129) over weedy check. Application of Sulfentrazone 0.03 kg a.i ha-1 was comparable with inter cultivation and manual weeding. Sulfentrazone 0.3 kg a.i ha-1 contributed for significantly higher yield (2302 kg ha-1 and 2424 kg ha-1) over weedy check and comparable with six inter cultivations and two manual weeding operations. The application of pre emergence herbicides like Pendimethalin, Alachlor and Oxyflurfen resulted achieving higher yield levels over the application of post emergence herbicides such as Quiazalofop-p-ethyl, Fenoxaprop ethyl, Carfentrazone ethyl and Imazethapyr during both years of experimentation.