Integrated Weed Management in Turmeric: A Review

Sathiyavani Erulan<sup>1</sup>; N. K.  Prabhakaran<sup>2</sup>; C. Chinnusamy<sup>3</sup>; R.  Shanmugasundram<sup>2</sup>; K. Soorianathsundaram<sup>4</sup>

Research Article

Integrated Weed Management in Turmeric: A Review

Sathiyavani Erulan¹

, N. K. Prabhakaran²

, C. Chinnusamy³

, R. Shanmugasundram²

, K. Soorianathsundaram⁴

1 Department of Agronomy, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
2 Professor, Department of Agronomy, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
3 Dean, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
4 Professor, Department of Horticulture, HC & RI, TNAU, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

Author

Correspondence author
Genomics and Applied Biology, 2015, Vol. 6, No. 3 doi: 10.5376/gab.2015.06.0003
Received: 03 Feb., 2015 Accepted: 08 Feb., 2015 Published: 11 Feb., 2015

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Preferred citation for this article:

E. SATHIYAVANI et al., 2015, Integrated Weed Management in Turmeric- A Review, Genomics and Applied Biology, Vol.6, No.3, 1-15 (doi: 10.5376/gab.2015.06.0003)

Abstract

Weeds constitute a major component among the bottlenecks for successful crop production. Weeds are generally hardy species having vigorous, deep root system and compete very efficiently with cultivated crops for the nutrients available in the soil and for the much needed moisture and sunlight. Weeding is one of the important farm operations for agricultural crops. Different types of weeders are used in different parts of a country. Since, a major portion of labour input is spent on weeding operations; it was felt that the technology of weeding should be improved for the benefit of the farmers.
For proper implementation of this, a few selected existing methods are need to be evaluated to formulate an efficient and economically viable integrated weed management practice. In this connection, the literature on various aspects related to the proposed study was collected and summarized in this chapter.

Keywords

Integrated Weed Management; Turmeric; kharif season

Weed Spectrum in Turmeric

The degree of damage caused by weeds is related to the type, species and density of weeds growing in a crop community. Weed species are known to vary with season and type of cultivation. Persistence of weeds in a location is largely influenced by climatic, edaphic (soil) and biotic factors which affect their occurrence, abundance, range and distribution.

Singh and Mahey (1991) reported that the major weed flora composition in the turmeric field included Trianthema monogyna, and Digitaria sanguinalis.

Avilkumar and Reddy (2000) observed the weed species like Amaranthus viridis, Commelina benghalensis, Cyperus rotundus, Cynodon dactylon, Celosia argentia, Digitaria marginata, Digitaria muricata, Euphorbia hirta, Eleusine indica and Panicum repensin turmeric and maize intercropping system. According to Gill et al. (2000), Digitaria ischamum, Cynodon dactylon, Cyperus rotundus, Eluesine aegypticum, Euphorbia hirta, Commelina benghalensis and Eragrostis pilosa were the predominant weeds in Dharwad, major weed species present in the turmeric field were Hall et al., 1992).

Knezevic et al. (2002) described the critical period of weed competition as a window in the crop growth cycle in which weeds must be controlled to prevent unacceptable yield losses. Weed competition throughout the crop period, on an average caused 82.2 per cent reduction in bulb yield. According to Hossian et al. (2008), for higher yield of turmeric the weeds need to be removed during 70 to 160 days after planting, indicating that it needs a longer period of weed free condition than other crops.

Effect of competition on growth and yield components

Reduction in crop yield has a direct correlation with competition in drought situation and weeds thrive better than crop plants, when left uncontrolled. Weeds can grow taller than crop plants and suppress the growth.

Many workers have emphasized that the effect of weeds on growth and yield components ultimately decide the yield. The reduction may occur as a result of competition between the crop and weed for nutrients, space, light and water (Klingman, 1961).

Growth components: The plant growth parameters in onion such as height, leaves plant^-1, fresh and dry weight of plants were measured significantly higher under weed free situation. Manjunath et al. (1989) found that weeds affected plant height, leaf area index (LAI), leaf area duration (LAD), net assimilation rate (NAR) and crop growth rate (CGR) of onion. According to Singh and Singh (1994), plant height and number of leaves increased significantly with treatments which were kept weed free till harvest due to least crop weed competition for nutrients, moisture, space and sunlight between crop and weeds in onion. Similarly, Verma and Singh (1997) observed that plant height, leaves plant^-1, fresh and dry weight of plant were significantly higher under weed free condition in onion. In onion, Dandge and Satao (1999) found that weed free treatment recorded maximum plant height and number of leaves plant^-1. Vora and Mehta (1999) indicated that maximum number of leaves plant^-1 and neck thickness was recorded under weed free check in garlic. In turmeric, the maximum number of plant height, number of leaves plant^-1, number of tillers plant^-1, dry matter production, leaf area and LAI were observed in weed free check plots due to reduction in weed population as noticed by Mannikeri (2006) and Babu (2008). According to Kaur et al. (2008), unweeded control recorded lesser leaf area index than all other herbicide treatments in turmeric. Pre-emergence application of pendimethalin 1.0 kg ha^-1 recorded higher LAI, LAD, CGR and NAR in turmeric (Channappagoudar et al., 2013).

Yield and yield components

Yield attributes like bulb diameter, number of cloves plant^-1, 100 cloves weight, bulb yield plant^-1 and total bulb yield of garlic were most favourable under weed free check (Vora and Mehta, 1999). According to Ramachandra Prasad (2000), uncontrolled weeds reduced the bulb yield by 75 per cent due to severe weed competition, particularly due to the presence of grasses and broad leaved weeds as weed competition could lower the bulb diameter and bulb weight considerably in onion. Kaur et al. (2008) found that uncontrolled weed growth resulted in 63.9 per cent reduction in average rhizome yield of turmeric. Kavaliauskaite (2009) noticed that weed competition throughout the crop period caused 82.2 per cent reduction in bulb yield of onion.

Unweeded check reduced the rhizome yield by 80 per cent due to severe weed competition, particularly due to the presence of grasses and broad leaved weeds as weed competition could lower the number of rhizome plant^-1 and rhizome weight considerably in turmeric (Ratnam et al., 2012).

Nutrient depletion by weeds

The minimum N, P and K removal (7.45, 0.62, 8.00 kg ha^-1, respectively) by weeds was observed when oxyfluorfen at 0.25 kg ha^-1was supplemented with hand weeding at 40 DAT followed with the application of oxyfluorfen at 0.37 kg ha^-1 in onion (Nandal and Ravinder Singh, 2002). Unweeded check registered higher nutrient removal of weeds when compared to herbicide applied plots as reported by Kumar et al. (2004) in groundnut. Kaur et al. (2008) suggested that unweeded control removed 103.5, 19.7 and 170.4 kg N, P K ha^-1in turmeric. Tuti and Das (2011) observed that weedy check resulted in higher removal of N, P and K by weeds. The lowest N, P and K removal by weeds was observed with pre-emergence application of metribuzin at 0.5 kg ha^-1 in soybean.

Weed Management Methods

Weed control aims at limiting the growing of unwanted plants both in space and time, without any attempt to eliminate the same from the field environment. Minimizing the weed infestation for attaining the remunerative crop yield forms the primary component of weed management.

Cultural Method

Weed control is one of the most important objectives of cultural operations. Following proper cultural operations is more than half the weed control method envisaged on a farm, which directly includes a healthy growth of crops and indirectly it maintains a crop environment that is detrimental to weeds.

Vedprakash et al. (2000) observed that bulb yield of onion showed better performance under herbicides combined with hand weeding treatment over herbicides alone owing to effective control of weed through herbicides during initial stage and later on by hand weeding. Higher weed control was obtained with manual weeding throughout the crop season in onion (Marwat et al., 2005, Ghadage et al., 2006 and Zubiar et al., 2009).

Babu (2008) reported that weed free check treatments registered higher cured rhizome yield (7.08 t ha^-1) than all other treatments and was studied the effect of different weed control treatments in turmeric. They found that application of atrazine resulted in marked reduction in dry matter accumulation of weeds after 30 days of sowing followed by metribuzin and straw mulching, The application of straw mulching recorded higher yield of fresh rhizomes (65 q ha^-1). Atrazine {2-chloro-4-(ethylamino)-6 isopropylamino-1, 3-5-triazine} is a widely used 5-triazine herbicide. It is used as pre-emergence herbicide in the control of broadleaf and grass weeds in a variety of commercial crops as well as roadside and fallow fields (Munier lamy et al., 2002).Singh et al. (2003) pointed that atrazine at 0.50 kg ha^-1 registered 79 per cent weed control efficiency followed by two hand weeding with 87 per cent WCE and one weeding followed by earthing up treatment with maximum (93%) WCE at 45 DAS indicating suppression of first flush of weeds successfully in maize.

Kolage et al. (2004) reported that among the herbicides, pre-emergence spraying of atrazine at 1.0 kg ha^-1 reduced the weed intensity substantially and recorded lower weed index and maximum weed control efficiency as compared to other herbicides used in maize. Rao et al. (2009) investigated that pre-emergence application of atrazine 1.5 kg ha^-1followed by hand weeding at 30 DAS recorded lower weed dry weight at 60 DAS and harvest in maize.

Oxyfluorfen

Singh (1988) reported that oxyfluorfen at 0.20 kg per ha as pre-emergence reduced the weed population by 85 per cent over weedy check and increase in herbicide dose caused burning effect on emerging sprouts in potato. Singh et al. (1990) concluded that per-emergence application of oxyfluorfen at 0.25 kg ha^-1 gave maximum yield and higher weed control efficiency in onion. Singh et al. (1992) reported the maximum bulb yield and higher weed control efficiency with oxyfluorfen @ 0.25 kg ha^?1 when applied 3 days before transplanting in onion. Porwal (1995) suggested that pre-emergence application of oxyflourfen (1.0 kg ha^-1), oxadiazon (1.0 kg ha^-1) and pendimethalin (1.25 kg ha^-1) supplemented with one hand weeding at 40 days after sowing showed 90 per cent weed control efficiency and reduced dry weed biomass to as low as 49.0-50.4 q ha^-1 in garlic.

Yadav et al. (2000) reported that pre emergence application of oxyfluorfen at 0.15 kg ha^-1 recorded higher net income over other treatments in soybean. Kolhe (2001) indicated that dry matter of weeds was significantly reduced due to application of pendimethalin, metalachlor, oxyfluorfen either alone or in combination with hand weeding at 35 DAP compared to weedy check in onion.

According to Ranpise and Patil (2001), pre-emergence application of oxyfluorfen at 0.40 kg ha^-1 produced maximum yield (242 q ha^-1) followed by oxyfluorfen at 0.20 kg ha^-1 (233 q ha^-1) as compared to all other treatments in onion. The lower yield was under control plot (50 q ha^-1) due to maximum weed intensity.

Pre-emergence application of oxyfluorfen at 0.125 kg ha^-1and pendimethalin at 0.5 kg ha^-1can be applied for better weed control and higher seedling production in onion as reported by (Sharma et al., 2009). Ratnam et al. (2012) recorded that pre-emergence application of oxyfluorfen @ 0.25 kg ha^-1 followed by post-emergence application of quizalofop ethyl @ 0.05 kg ha^-1 followed by weeding at 60 and 90 DAP recorded higher fresh rhizome yield in turmeric. According to Sathya Priya et al. (2013), pre-emergence application of oxyfluorfen (23.5per cent EC) at 200 g ha^-1 recorded lesser weed density and dry weight in onion.

Oxadiargyl

Mirza Hasanuzzaman et al. (2009) reported that pre-emergence application of oxadiargyl at 190 ml ha^-1 + 1 hand weeding at 25 DAT recorded lesser weed density, dry weight and higher weed control efficiency and grain yield in rice. Pre-emergence application of oxadiargyl at 75 g ha^-1 fb bispyribac-sodium 30 g ha^-1 at 20 DAT was at par with HW twice at 20 and 40 DAT in achieving higher grain yield in transplanted rice (Deepthi Kiran and Subramanyam, 2010).

According to Naseeruddin et al. (2014), pre-emergence application of oxadiargyl 75 g ha^-1 followed by post-emergence application of azimsulfuron 30 g ha^-1 resulted in broad spectrum weed control coupled with the highest grain yield drum seeded rice (5.75 t ha^-1).

Post - Emergence Herbicides

Pre-emergence or pre plant incorporated herbicides have a narrow spectrum of weed control. Further if farmers skip the application of these herbicides due to one (or) the other reason, there is a need of alternative post-emergence herbicides for managing weeds. Post emergence herbicides have broad spectrum of activity.

Metsulfuron methyl

Karmakar et al. (1994) reported that toxic effects of this herbicide on dicots viz., Digera arvensis, Euphorbia hirta, Cleome viscosa, Phyllanthus niruri and monocots viz., Cyperus rotundus and Cynodon dactylon.

Metsulfuron methyl at 3.5 to 4.5 g ha^-1 gave good control of Parthenium hysterophoruswhich results in drying up of the weeds started from growing tips after a week of spray and dried completely within 20days (Mishra and Bhan, 1994). Studies conducted at Hisar revealed that metsulfuron at the rate of 2 to 8 g ha^-1 provided 47 to 57 percent control of barnyard grass (Samar Singh et al., 1995). Accoding to Bodake et al. (2014), post-emergence application of metsulfuron- methyl at 0.004 kg ha^-1 at 3WAS + 1 HW at 5WAS recorded higher green forage and dry matter yield in oat.

Fenoxaprop

Sarkar (2006) reported that post-emergence application of fenoxaprop-p-ethyl at 75 g ha^-1 or quizalofop ethyl at 50 g ha^-1 at 20 DAS effectively controlled the grassy weeds in Jute besides giving higher fibre yield. According to Walia et al. (2011), post emergence application of AEF 046360-8% + DIC 1468-14%-22% EC (fenoxaprop-P-ethyl+metribuzin) at 275 and 330 g ha^-1as well as Atlantis 3.6 WDG AT 14.4 g ha^-1 increased wheat grain yield by 58.8, 64.2 and 67.3%, respectively as compared to unweeded (control) treatment.

In aerobic rice, post-emergence mixture of fenoxaprop +ethoxysulfuron at 30 DAS recorded higher grain yield in aerobic rice (Ramachandiran and Balasubramanian, 2012).

Post emergence combined application of fenoxaprop-p-ethyl at 60 g ha^-1+ ethoxysulfuron 15 g ha^-1at 20 and 35 DAT and hand weeding twice recorded lesser weed density, dry weight and higher grain yield in system of rice intensification method of rice (Dewangan et al., 2014). According to Singh et al. (2014), lesser weed density and dry weight wasrecorded in fenoxaprop + ethoxysulfuron fb bispyribac at 60 + 15 and 25 g ha^-1in rice.

Glyphosate

Glyphosate at 2.00 kg ha^-1 followed by hand weeding recorded lower weed density and dry weight in cotton (Nadanassababady and Kandasamy, 2002). Increased dosage and extended time of application are beneficial since glyphosate provides broad-spectrum control of many annual and perennial grasses, sedges, and broadleaf weeds in glyphosate- resistant cotton (Burke et al., 2005). Glyphosate mixed with S-metolachlor increased the control of late season annual grasses to 14-43 percentage points compared with the control by glyphosate alone in one North Carolina study in cotton (Clewis et al., 2006). According to Nithya Chinnusamy et al. (2013), post emergence spraying of potassium salt of glyphosate at 2700 g a.i.ha^-1 twice on 25 and 65 DAS can be done for complete control of broad spectrum weeds with higher seed cotton yield in herbicide tolerant transgenic cotton during winter season.

Integrated Weed Management

There is no single method by which all the weeds can be controlled effectively. A judicious combination of chemicals and cultural cultivation practices for weed control reduces the expenditure as well as give benefit to the crop plants by providing proper aeration and conservation of moisture (Yadav et al., 2009). Integrated weed control is a weed density management system that uses all suitable techniques in a compatible manner to reduce weed density and maintain them at levels below those cause economic injury to crop cultivation.

Pre-emergence application of pendimethalin + straw mulch 9 t ha^-1 recorded the higher weed control efficiency (84.2%), fresh rhizome yield (29.6 t ha^-1) and herbicide efficiency index (11.2) and was on par with metribuzin and atrazine both integrated with straw mulch 9 t ha^-1 in turmeric (Kaur et al., 2008). According to Ratnam et al. (2012), pre-emergence application of oxyfluorfen 0.25 kg ha^-1 followed by quizalofop ethyl 0.05 kg ha^-1 at 30 DAS supplemented with hand weeding at 60 and 90 DAS recorded higher fresh rhizome yield in turmeric. Ashok Jadhav and Sanjay Pawar (2014) and Suresh Kumar et al. (2014) reported that pre-emergence application of metribuzin 0.7 ka ha^-1 fb straw mulch 10 t ha^-1 fb one HW recorded lower weed density and dry weight and higher WCE and rhizome yield in turmeric.

Herbicidal Effect on Soil Microflora

When herbicides are applied, most of the s

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