Effect of crop density and weed management practices in rabi sweet corn on quality of sweet corn kernels and its residual effect on seed quality of succeeding greengram in sweet corn-greengram cropping systems in Alfisols under tropical wet and dry c

A field experiment was conducted under tropical wet and dry climate condition at Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India during Rabi and zaid of 2021-22 and 2022-23. The research was laid out in a split plot design comprising of three numbers of main plot and six numbers of sub-plot treatments which were replicated thrice. The main plot treatments consisted of crop geometry viz., 40 cm x 20 cm (P1), 50 cm x 20 cm (P2) and 60 cm x 20 cm (P3) while, the sub-plot treatments consisted of weed management practices viz., live mulch with cowpea up to flowering initiation at 30 DAS (W1), live mulch with cowpea up to 1st plucking at 45 DAS (W2), application of pendimethalin @ 0.75 kg a.i./ha as pre-emergence (W3), farmers’ practice (Hoeing and earthing up at 20 DAS) (W4), weed free check (W5) and weedy check (W6). Weed management practices affected the protein content of sweet corn kernels significantly wherein weed free check recorded significantly higher protein content of kernels followed by application of pendimethalin (W3) and live mulch with cowpea up to 45 DAS (W2). Weedy check (W6) recorded the lowest values in both the experimental years. Crop geometry had non-significant effect on protein content of kernels of sweet corn and seeds of greengram. In succeeding crop of greengram, significantly lower seed protein content of greengram was registered under weedy check (W6) while rest of the treatments remained statistically similar. The studies proved the detrimental effect of weeds on protein content of sweet corn and greengram in the cropping system.