Impact of tillage and weed management strategies on growth, physiology and yield of summer black gram and soil microbial populations

A field experiment was conducted at Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India, during the summer of 2024 to evaluate the impact of different tillage and weed management practices on black gram (BG). The study was comprised of four tillage practices, namely conventional tillage (CT), zero tillage (ZT), CT with residue (R) (CT+R) and ZT with residue (ZT+R) in the main plots and three weed management practices, namely H1 (application of pendimethalin at 750 g ha-1 followed by imazethapyr at 70 g ha-1), H2 (H1 + one hand weeding) and H3 (weedy check) in sub-plots, laid out in a split plot design with three replications. Various morphological, physiological, biochemical, yield parameters and soil microbial populations were studied at different growth stages of black gram. The results revealed that CT+R recorded the most significant positive effects on growth, physiological, biochemical and yield parameters, outperforming ZT in many aspects. Weed management practices, particularly H2, enhanced crop performance by reducing weed interference. Notably, CT+R increased the total chlorophyll content by 35 % over ZT, while H2 increased it by 34.2 % compared to H3. Overall, the combination of CT +R and H2 gave the maximum seed yield (1195.67 kg ha-1), whereas the lowest yield (577.7 kg ha-1) was recorded under ZT with H3. Thus, CT+R combined with H2 is recommended for optimizing the seed yield of black gram under summer conditions of Odisha.