ALLELOPATHY AS A POSSJBLE STRATEGY FOR WEED CONTROL IN MUNGBEAN

Abstract

The field experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Farm of Shcr-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU), Dhaka to investigate the performance of different weed control strategies for controlling weeds growth in rnungbean plots during the period from March to Jwc 2008. The experiment was carried out in split-plot design with three replications accommodating the varieties in main plot and weed control strategies in the sub plot. The varieties were BARI mung 6 and BU mung 2 and weed control strategies were no weeding. hand weeding, herbicide application, acassia extract application, sorghum extract application. Brassica extract application and sunflower extract application. Between the varieties BARI mung 6 was better performer in reduing weed density (3.73%), weed hiomass (3.21%) and increasing weed control efficiency (8.38%) at IS DAS than 1k! mung 2. Allelopathic plant extracts inhibited weeds but less than hand weeding. hand weeding and acassia extract application significantly reduced weed density by 50.39% and 40.16% with their corresponding weed control efficiency by 54% and 50% respectively. RU mung 2 and hand weeding. BARI mung 6 and acassia extract combination and also combination of variety and other plant extract showed the higher weed control efficiency. Minimuni number of weeds at IS DAS and at 45 DAS was found in the interaction of BARI mung 6 and hand weeding (7.31 weeds/rn2 ). Variety, weed control strategies and their interaction significantly inilueneed the crop, yield and other crop characters like number of pods per plant. pod length. number of seeds per pod and thousand seed weight of mungbean. Plant height was highest in acassia extract application (40.62 cm) at harvest. The highest number of pods per plant (11.34 and 14.99) was recorded from BARI mung oat 45 DAS and at harvest respectively. Yield of mungbean was higher in hand weeding followed by acassia extract application herbicide application and sorghum extract application respectively. The combination of BARI mung 6 and hand weeding showed the highest grain yield (1501.00 kg ha S' ) that followed by the same variety with acassia extract (1402.00 kg hi') and herbicide (1321.00 kg hi ').The grain yield increase over control by the variety BARI mung 6 with hand weeding, acassia extract and herbicide were 157.46%. 140.48% and 126.58% respectively.