THE EFFECTS OF PERIOD OF WEED INTERFERENCE AND WEED CONTROL ON COWPEA (Vigna unquiculata (L.) walp)

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Date
1988-09
Authors
TIMOTHY, TSUWE SULE
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Abstract
Two field experiments were conducted during the 1987 wet season at Samaru in the Northern Guinea savanna ecological :Zone of Nigeria to study the effects of period of weed interference and weed control on cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L,) Walp). In the study, weed interference for 3 WAS did not adversely affect crop growth, yield and yield attributes. Cowpea was critically adversely affected by weeds between 3 and 9 WAS Once kept weed-free for 9 WAS no significant reduction in seed yield occured compared with the crop kept weed-free throughout, although maximum yield occured with the crops kept weed-free for 15 weeks. In the weed control experiment, all the herbicide treatments significantly reduced weed infestation until 9 WAS Among the weed control treatments, metolachlor plus metobromuron at 1.5+1.5 kg a.i/ha followed by supplementary hoe-weeding at 6 WAS gave effective weed control and resulted in vigorous cowpea growth and significantly higher cowpea yield than the hoe-weeded controls Pre-emergence mixtures of diuron with metolachlor and alachlor each at 0.8+1.5 kg a.i/ha, each followed by post-emergence imazaquin at 0.2 kg a.i/ha at 3 WAS, resulted in comparable cowpea seed yield to the highest obtained with metolachlor plus metobromuron followed by supplementary hoe-weeding . Plots hoe-weeded twice and those treated with alachlor plus diuron at 1.5+0.8 kg a.i/ha followed by supplementary hoe-weeding at 6 WAS had higher seed yield than the untreated control. With the exception of metolachlor plus diuron, all the other plots treated with half the rate of the pre-emergence herbicide mixtures only produced cowpea seed yield that were comparable to those 1 of the untreated control. The pre-emergence herbicide treatments differentially depressed various aspects of cowpea growth like vigour, plant height, leaf dry weight and leaf area. Uncontrolled weed growth throughout the crop life-cycle resulted in significant depression of cowpea growth parameters such as crop vigour, plant height, leaf production and caused cowpea seed yield reduction by 74.2% in the weed interference and 74,5% in the weed control trials.
Description
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN AGRONOMY DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY ZARIA, NIGERIA,, SEPTEMBER, 1988
Keywords
EFFECTS,, PERIOD,, WEED,, INTERFERENCE,, WEED,, CONTROL,, COWPEA,, (Vigna unquiculata (L.) walp).
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