Effect of Planting Patterns and Weed Control Treatments on Growth and Yield of Spring Maize

Background: Weed infestation causes serious problem in the corn production and due to limiting land area different planting patterns are required to be adopted to meet the corn demand. A field trail was conducted during spring 2023 and 2024 on agricultural farm of Lovely Professional University, Punjab on “The effect of planting patterns and weed control treatments on weed biomass, growth and yield of spring maize (Zea mays L.). Methods: The study was laid out in split plot design with 3 planting methods i.e. flat planting with single row, flat sowing with paired row and ridge planting as main plots and five weed control treatments that is atrazine + pendimethalin f. b. straw mulching (6t ha-1), pendimethalin + intercropping cowpea f. b. earthing up and straw mulching, inter. dhaincha f. b. earthing up + straw mulching, two hand weeding and unweeded (control) in sub plots with four replications. Variety PMH10 was used is recommended for the spring season under Punjab conditions. Result: The results indicated that among the planting patterns, the ridge planting produced significantly higher grain yield during both the years as compared to flat sowing with single row and paired row which was due to better growth parameters in ridge sowing. However, the weed biomass was found significantly less in the ridge planting compared to flat planting. Among subplot treatments, the higher grain yield was obtained in treatments that are pendimethalin + intercropping of cowpea f. b. earthing up + straw mulching and intercropping dhaincha f. b. earthing up + straw mulching which were statistically at par with one another during 2023 and 2024 and both treatments were found to be significantly better than all other treatments. The grain yield was significantly less in the unweeded (control) treatment as compared to other treatments. The weed density and biomass was significantly less in the treatments in which mulching was used as compared to two hand weeding and the control treatments.