Appropriate Time for Weed Management for Finger millet(Eleusin coracana Goartn)

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted in 2009 and 2010 at Adet and Finoteselam research stations to determine the critical period of weed competition in Finger millet (Eleusin coracana Goartn). Seventeen treatments where finger millet is kept weed free and left weedy for an interval of days after emergence (DAE) were tested in the experiment. The treatments were: weedy check, weed free check, weeding up to 20 DAE, weeding up to 25 DAE ,weeding up to 30 AE, weeding up to 35 DAE, weeding up to 40 DAE, weeding up to 45 DAE, weedy up to 20 DAE, weedy up to 25 DAE, weedy up to 30 DAE, weedy up to 35 DAE, weedy up to 40DAE,weedy up to 45 DAE, weeding at 20 and 25 DAE, weeding at 20, 25 and 35 DAE and weeding at to 20, 25, 35, 45 DAE. Crop-weed competitions were not the same across all stages of the crop. The competition became sever at early stage of growth than the late growth stage of the crop.  Similarly, the critical period of weed competition lies at early growth stage between 20 days and 30 days after emergence of the crop.  Therefore, to prevent yield loss due to weeds, the crop should be kept weed-free from 20 to 30 days after emergences; since an application of control measures before and after this period did not brought that much yield loss on finger millet. However, finger millet yield loss increased with increasing duration of weed interference, and decreased with increasing duration of weed free periods.

Keywords: critical ,loss, Competition