Effect of organic nutrient and weed management practices on growth, yield attributes and yield of rabi sweet corn (Zea mays L. saccharata) under vertisol of Chhattisgarh

Introduction

sweet corn (Zea mays L. var. saccharata), also called Indian corn, sugar corn and pole corn, is an expansion of maize with a excessive sugar content material. fresh cobs of vegetable maize are typically ate up in uncooked, boiled or roasted form (Tindall, 1983).a number of the numerous corn subspecies grown, candy corn has come to be extra critical in recent times. Its taste and dietary fee has made it a valued crop in all countries and the scope of corn production is continuously increasing. candy corn is a short length, picked when immature (milk stage) and eaten as a vegetable, in preference to as grain. It gives carbohydrates, protein, fats, sugar, minerals and nutrients in palatable, wholesome, hygienic and digestible shape. it's far rich in phosphorus content (86 mg/100 g safe to eat portion in assessment to 21 to 57 mg phosphorus content in different normally used greens). it is a low calorie vegetable having better fiber content material without ldl cholesterol. candy corn ought to be eaten clean or canned/frozen before the kernels emerge as difficult and starchy. unfavourable results of present day agricultural practices no longer handiest on the farm however additionally at the fitness of all living things and therefore on the surroundings were well documented everywhere in the international. utility of era, in particular in phrases of using chemical fertilizers and pesticides all around us has persuaded human beings to assume aloud. organic farming is one of the widely used strategies, that's idea of because the first-class opportunity to avoid the sick results of chemical farming. natural manure utility to the crop is an age old practice. Nutrient content material of N, P and ok in properly decomposed organic manure similarly to supplying of different secondary plant vitamins acts as binding material and improves the soil physical residences. the products, acquired via organic farming gadget fetch higher charges within the market and are greater demanded by using the customer's. Weed is considers the most important obstacle for the growers within the natural farming. lower plant productiveness in natural farming specifically associated with the bad weed manage. it's far widely recognized, in most cases, that losses caused by weeds surpassed the losses from any category of agricultural pests.sweet corn is maximum touchy to weed opposition at some point of its early increase duration. The boom of plants inside the first week is rather sluggish and subsequently all through this era weeds establish hastily and come to be aggressive. In view of the above, the existing investigation become undertaken to examine the impact of organic nutrient and weed management on growth, yield attributes and yield of sweet corn.

Materials and Methods

A field experiment was conducted on vertisollocally known as "Kanhar" at farm of College of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur during rabi season of 2018-19. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three organic nutrient management options in main plots and seven weed control options in sub plots. The treatments consisted of 50% N (FYM) + 50% N (vermicompost); 50% N (FYM) + 50% N (poultry manure); 50% N (FYM) + 25% N (vermicompost) + 25% N (poultry manure) and weed control options hand weeding twice (20 and 40 DAS);black polythene mulch, straw mulch @ 5 tonne ha -1 ; mechanical weeding twice (20 and 40 DAS); live mulch (in-situ incorporation of green gram at 30 DAS); atrazine 1.0 kgha -1 as pre-emergence and weedy check. The experimental site was clayey in texture having pH 7.2, EC 0.42 dsm -1 , organic carbon 4.98 g kg -1 and soil available N, P and K was 207.2, 16.42 and 332kg ha -1 , respectively. Sweet corn "Sugar 75" was taken as test crop was sown with spacing of 60 × 20 cm. The nutrient requirement of sweet corn i.e80:60:40 kg N: P: Kkg ha - 1 . Entire quantity of all the organic sources was applied as per the treatment on N basis one day before the sowing of the sweet corn seeds. Weeds were managed as per the different weed management treatments imposed in the experiment. Four irrigations of five cm depth were given including one come up irrigation synchronized with the growth stages.

Results and Discussion

Effect of organic nutrient management

The highest plant population and plant height at harvest was recorded under 50% N (FYM) + 50% N (PM) over all the other organic nutrient management practices. However, significantly highest number of cobs plant -1 , cob length, cob diameter, cob weight, number of rows cob -1 and number of grains row -1 were recorded in 50% N (FYM) + 50% N (PM) which was found superior over all the other organic nutrient management. Which was found at par with 50% N (FYM) + 25% N (VM) +25% N (PM). This result is due to the incremental rate of poultry manure the number of cobs produced plant -1 increased significantly (Shiyam et al., 2017) [7] . It is clear from the data presented in Table 2 that organic nutrient management significantly affect green cob yield and stover yield of sweet corn. Significantly the highest cob yield of sweet corn (3.40 t ha -1 ) was obtained under 50% N (FYM) + 50% N (PM) (T 2 ) over other organic nutrient management. Addition of P enriched poultry manure increased the cob yield of sweet corn significantly. Similar results were found by Barod and Dhar (2012) [3] and Atou et al. (2016) [2] .

Effect of organic weed management

The highest plant population, plant height were recorded under black polythene mulch (W 2 ) over all the other weed control practices. This result might be due to the polythene mulched plots increases the soil temperature from normal to about 6-8°C higher as compared to un-mulched plots and restrict the growth of weeds (Ahmed and Singh, 2013) [1] and also promotes early vigorous growth of the plant. Whereas, lowest plant population and plant height were recorded under weedy check. The significantly highest number of cobs plant -1 , cob length, cob diameter, cob weight, number of rows cob -1 and number of grains row -1 were recorded in black polythene mulchthan all the other weed management practices, which was found at par with atrazine @ 1.0 kg ha -1 as pre-emergence. This is might be due to the modification in microclimate as induced by plastic much increases the green cob yield (Kwabiah, 2003) [4] . Whereas, the lowest yield attribute characters of sweet corn was recorded in weedy check, due to high density of weed infestation and increased weed-plant competition for space, light, nutrients and moisture. Significantly highest green cob yield and stover yield were recorded under black polythene mulch which was 56.57% higher than the weedy check and from 6.5 to 32.2% over all the other weed control options except atrazine 1.0 kg/ha (3.77 t ha -1 ). Higher yield in black polythene mulch treatment might be due to its effects on soil temperature, soil moisture and weed suppression (Rajablarianiand Sheykhmohamady, 2015) [5] . The plastic mulch covered the soil, prevented early weed recruitment through acting as physical barrier and through solarisation effect (Stapleton, 1990) [8] and would be due to lower weed index. While, increased cob yield with herbicide due to the herbicides prevented the germination of weed and reduced the growth of weed (Samantet al., 2015) [6] .

References

1. Ahmed BF, Singh KN. Modification of crop ecology in maize (Zea mays). Arch. 2013;6(2):685-7.
2. Atou K, Singh AP, Longkumer LT, Singh PL, Singh PK. Effect of organic manures and Azospirillum on productivity and economics of maize (Zea mays L.). Asian J Soil Sci. 2016;11(1):213-6.
3. Barod NK, Dhar S. Residual soil fertility and nutrient uptake in baby corn as influenced by nutrient sources and weed control measures. Ann Agric Res. 2012;36(3).
4. Kwabiah AB, Stoskopf NC, Palm CA, Voroney RP, Rao MR, Gacheru E. Phosphorus availability and maize response to organic and inorganic fertilizer inputs in a shortterm study in western Kenya. Agric Ecosyst Environ. 2003;95(1):49-59.
5. Rajablariani HR, Sheykhmohamady M. Growth of sweet corn and weeds in response to colored plastic mulches. J Adv Agric Technol. 2015;2(1).
6. Samant TK, Dhir BC, Mohanty B. Weed growth, yield components, productivity, economics and nutrient uptake of maize (Zea mays L.) as influenced by various herbicide applications under rainfed condition. Sch J Agric Vet Sci. 2015;2(1B):79-83.
7. Shiyam JO, Garjila YA, Bobboyi M. Effect of poultry manure on growth and yield of maize (Zea mays var. Praecox). Int J Appl Life Sci. 2017;10(4):1-6.
8. Stapleton JJ. Thermal inactivation of crop pests and pathogen and other soil changes caused by solarisation. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Soil Solarisation; 1990 Feb 19-25; Amman, Jordan. p. 37-47.