EFFECTIVE WAY OF WEED MANAGEMENT IN BULB CROPS

Abstract

Bulb crops (Allium species) are the most important vegetable crops grown throughout the world. Weeds are the major problem in this crops and compete the plants/crops for water, sunlight etc. They are undesirable plants out of place and function as an uneconomic tax on the crop by taking the space required for the plant, absorbing the water and nutrients from the soil and by competing for other essentials like light, moisture etc. Weeds being much more hardy and tenacious than crops plants, if unchecked, get the upper hand and adversely affect the growth and yield of crop plant. There are two methods generally employed for controlling weeds. viz., (i) Hand weeding, and (ii) Use of herbicides. The first one is generally practiced by the farmers. This method is the most labour intensive and costly. Due to the industrial development, the agricultural labourers are engaged towards the industries for higher wages. To overcome this difficulty, with the recent introduction of new herbicides, chemical weed control has come to the forefront as an additional tool to fight weeds. One of the major advantages of some of these chemicals is that when applied at a suitable stage they kill the weed even before they appear on the surface and save the crop from weed competition during the critical growing period.