Weed Biomass and Seedling Emergence Patterns as Affected by Different Ground Cover Management Systems in Coconut Plantations of Asian Humid Tropics Sri Lanka

Select Volume / Issue:

• Volume 2,Issue 5, Sept. 2015

Year:

2015

Type of Publication:

Article

Keywords:

Coconut, Cover Crop, Glyphosate, Seedling Emergence

Authors:

Senarathne, S. H. S.; Sangakkara, U. R.; Raveendra, S. A. S. T.

Journal:

IJRAS

Volume:

2

Number:

5

Pages:

245-252

Month:

September

Note:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Abstract:

Weeds are a perennial problem in coconut plantations and causes significant losses in terms of nut yield. The occurrence of weeds also causes difficulties in its eradication. The influence of different management systems were evaluated in terms of their impact on weed seedling emergence patterns in coconut plantations in Sri Lanka. Treatments imposed were application of glyphosate (N-(phosphonomethyl)-glycine) (T1), cover cropping with Pueraria phaseoloides (T2), tractor harrowing (T3), tractor slashing (T4) and tractor ploughing (T5). All treatments were applied twice a year except for the (T2). Based on a reduction in weed biomass, application of glyphosate (T1) and cover cropping (T2) practices were very efficient methods to reduce the weed population. Chemical weeding and cover cropping were the best methods to reduce weed seedling emergence density in the field. The effectiveness of slashing in reducing weed seedling emergence density was lower than cover cropping and chemical weeding methods. The monocotyledonous, dicotyledonous and total weed seedling emergence densities were almost similar in ploughed and harrowed plots. The seed depth of emerged seedling of all the weed species was very high in harrowed and ploughed treatments when compared to other treatments. This indicated that loosening the soil creates more favorable environment for the germination of weed seeds buried in soil. Therefore, it can be argued that the elimination of weed seeds in the top 2cm or 4cm in the soil seed bank by any means is likely to reduce the level of weed infestation by about 60% to 95%.

Full text: IJRAS_294_Final.pdf [Bibtex]