A field experiment was carried out at Department of Agronomy, Anbil Dharmalingam Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Trichy during late Samba, 2019 to evaluate the weed management practices on weed dynamics, weed control efficiency, growth and yield of drip irrigated aerobic rice. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with nine treatments and replicated thrice. Treatments consist of herbigation of pre emergence (PE) pendimethalin 1.0 kg ha-1 at 3 DAS + Hand weeding (HW) on 35 DAS, herbigation of PE pretilachlor + bensulfuron methyl 660 g ha-1 at 3 DAS + HW on 35 DAS, herbigation of post emergence (PoE) bispyribac sodium 25 g ha-1 at 20 DAS + HW on 45 DAS, herbigation of PE pretilachlor + bensulfuron methyl 660 g ha-1 at 3 DAS + spray of PoE bispyribac sodium 25 g ha-1 at 35 DAS, herbigation of PE pendimethalin 1.0 kg ha-1 at 3 DAS + spray of PoE bispyribac sodium 25 g ha-1 at 35 DAS, spray of PE pendimethalin 1.0 kg ha-1 at 3 DAS + PoE bispyribac sodium 25 g ha-1 at 35 DAS, spray of PE pretilachlor + bensulfuron methyl 660 g ha-1 at 3 DAS + PoE bispyribac sodium 25 g ha-1 at 35 DAS, HW on 20 DAS and 45 DAS and unweeded control. Results revealed that among the different weed management practices, hand weeding twice at 20 and 45 DAS registered significantly lower weed density (8.9 m-2), dry weight (2.3 g m-2) and higher weed control efficiency (98.8 %) than unweeded control at 60 DAS. This was on par with manual spray of PE pretilachlor + bensulfuron methyl 660 g ha-1 at 3 DAS + PoE bispyribac sodium 25 g ha-1 at 35 DAS. Among the herbigation treatments, herbigation of PoE bispyribac sodium 25 g ha-1 at 20 DAS + HW on 45 DAS obtained lower weed density (21.3 m-2), dry weight (6.2 g m-2) and higher WCE (97%) at 60 DAS. This was followed by herbigation of PE pretilachlor + bensulfuron methyl 660 g ha-1 at 3 DAS + HW on 35 DAS. Hand weeding twice at 20 and 45 DAS recorded taller plants (122.5 cm), more tillers (501 m-2), productive tillers (442 m-2), filled grains (213 panicle-1) and grain yield (4305 kg ha-1) than unweeded control. However, this was comparable with spray of PE pretilachlor + bensulfuron methyl 660 g ha-1 at 3 DAS + PoE bispyribac sodium 25 g ha-1 at 35 DAS and herbigation of PE pretilachlor + bensulfuron methyl 660 g ha-1 at 3 DAS + HW on 35 DAS. Thus, spray of PE pretilachlor + bensulfuron methyl 660 g ha-1 at 3 DAS + PoE bispyribac sodium 25 g ha-1 at 35 DAS could be recommended as viable option to control weeds in drip irrigated aerobic rice in considering the prevailing labour situation.

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