Abstract
Introduction: Seed spend a lot of time to absorb water from soli after sowing. So, if this time is minimized by soaking seeds in water before sowing (seed priming), seed germination and seedling emergence is more rapid which cause improving the rate of emergence and crop growth in early season and via increasing crop competitiveness can reduce weed damage. So, objective of this research was to study the effects of seed priming and application of herbicide on growth and yield of maize in competition with weeds.
Materials and methods: Field experiment was conducted at the research field of Shahrood University as randomized complete block design with 4 replications in during the growing season of 2010-2011. The treatments were included: 1) weedy check, 2) nicosulfuron 80 gram active ingredient per hectare (g.a.i/ha), 3) nicosulfuron 40 g.a.i/ha, 4) hand weeding, 5) hand weeding 3 and 6 weeks after corn emergence, 6) nicosulfuron 40 g.a.i/ha + hand weeding 6 weeks after corn emergence, 7) hydropriming, 7) hydropriming + nicosulfuron 40 g.a.i/ha and 9) hydropriming + hand weeding 6 weeks after corn emergence. The recorded properties such as: plant height, number of leaves, leaf area index, shoot diameter, ear diameter, ear length, grain yield and yield components of corn.
Results: The results of analysis of variance indicated that the effect of treatments was significant on all investigated traits except for number of leaf, number of grains per row, number of rows per ear and ear length. The results showed that no significant difference was observed in 1000 grain weight and grain yield between treatments of weed free, hydropriming + nicosulfuron 40 g.a.i/ha, hydropriming + hand weeding 6 weeks after corn emergence and nicosulfuron 80 g.a.i/ha. The maximum leaf area index was obtained in priming treatments. The results indicated that no significant difference was observed in reduced density and dry weight of weeds between the combination treatments of hydropriming + nicosulfuron 40 g.a.i/ha, hydropriming + hand weeding 6 weeks after corn emergence and nicosulfuron 40 g.a.i/ha + hand weeding 6 weeks after corn emergence with nicosulfuron 80 g.a.i/ha treatment.
Conclusion: Based on these results, seed priming in combination with reduced dose of nicosulfuron can effectively control weeds and increase crop yield and also reduce herbicide consumption.
Keywords: Pre-treated seed, Reduced dose, Integrated weed management, Weeding |