Weed management in yellow mustard using herbicide and weed mulch in lateritic soil of West Bengal

A field experiment was conducted during 2018-19 and 2019-20 at Agriculture Farm, Institute of Agriculture, Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan, West Bengal with the objective to study the integrated use of herbicide and weed mulch on weed growth and yield of yellow mustard. The soil of the experimental field was sandy loam in texture. The experiment comprising of seven treatments viz. pre-emergence (PE) application of pendimethalin at 0.75 kg/ha, mulching with Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth) at 15 t/ha, mulching with Antigonon leptopus (coral vine) at 4 t/ha, pendimethalin as PE at 0.75 kg/ha followed by mulching with Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth) at 15 t/ha , pendimethalin as PE at 0.75 kg/ha followed by mulching with Antigonon leptopus (coral vine) at 4 t/ha , weedy check and weed free was laid out in a randomized block design with three replications. Result revealed that pendimethalin as PE at 0.75 kg/ha followed by mulching with Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth) at 15 t/ha recorded the lower values of total weed density (5.76 and 7.01 no/m2) and biomass (5.04 and 4.82 g/m2) at 45 DAS and higher seed yield of 1250 and 1183 kg/ha in first and second year, respectively.