EFFECTS OF PERIODS OF WEED INTERFERENCE AND WEED CONTROL ON GINGER (Zingiber officinale Roscoe.)
EFFECTS OF PERIODS OF WEED INTERFERENCE AND WEED CONTROL ON GINGER (Zingiber officinale Roscoe.)
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Date
1987-11
Authors
OLORUKOOBA, MARLIYATU MOJISHOLA
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Abstract
Two field experiments were conducted during the 1986
wet season at Samaru in the northern Guinea savanna ecological
zone of Nigeria to study the effects of mulching, periods of
weed interference and chemical weed control ginger (Zingiber
officinale Roscoe).
In the weed interference trial, the use of grass mulch
resulted in lower weed infestation and vigorous growth of
ginger compared with the unmulched plots. Mean dry rhizome
yield in mulched plots was about 37% higher than that of the
unmulched situation. Mulching also resulted in lower weed dry
matter production compared with no mulching due to the effect
of grass mulch which suppressed weed growth through smothering.
It was also apparent in this trial that weed infestation for 4
weeks after planting (WAP) did not adversely affect crop
growth due to initial slow growth of the crop. Maximum rhizome
yield could be obtained even when the crop is allowed to be
infested up to 12 WAP due to lack of crop injury which usually
occurs during weed removal at early stages of growth. Probably
the critical period of weed competition in the crop is between
12 and 16 WAP.
It was apparent that all the herbicide treatments consistently
controlled weeds effectively both before and after one
supplementary weeding. Among the weed control treatments,
mixtures of metolachlor with chlorbromuron and prometryne,
each at 1.0 + 1.0 kg a.i/ha, terbutryne at 1.33 + 0.67 kg a.i./ha
metribuzin at 1.0 to 0.25 kg a.i./ha, fluometuron and ametryne,
each at 1.0 + 1.0 and 1.5 + 1.5 kg a.i./ha and with diuron
at 1.0 + 0.4 and 1.5 + 0.8 kg a.i./ha, all followed by
supplementary hoe-weeding at 13 weeks after planting, resulted
in significantly higher rhizome yield and effective seasonlong
weed reduction compared with the unweeded control .
Except the mixtures of metolachlor with fluometuron,
ametryne and diuron, high rates of the other herbicide
mixtures did not differ significantly in rhizome yield from
the unweeded check, thus indicating possible detrimental effect
of increasing the rates of these mixtures for weed control
in the crop. It was apparent that atrazine-containing mixture
was not tolerated by this crop, since both rates resulted in
poor crop vigour and low rhizome yield comparable to the
unweeded control.
In this trial, unchecked weed growth throughout the crop
life cycle significantly depressed crop vigour, leaf, stem
and shoot dry weight and number of leaves per plant. It also
reduced rhizome yield by 50.3% and 63.0% compared with the
appropriate best treatments in the weed interference and chemical
weed control trials, respectively
Description
A thesis submitted to the Post-graduate 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
12 NOVEMBER, 1987
Keywords
EFFECTS,, PERIODS,, WEED,, INTERFERENCE,, WEED,, CONTROL,, GINGER,, (Zingiber officinale Roscoe.).