ROW SPACING AND NUMBER OF WEEDING ON THE PERFORMANCE OF MUNGBEAN

Abstract

Abstract An experiment was conducted at the Agronomy field of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka during January to April 2012 to study the effect of intra- row spacing and time of weeding on the performance of mungbean (cv. BARI mung-4). The experiment comprised with two factors viz. (i) Intra-row spacing and (ii) Time of weeding. Four row spacing (S 1 = 15 cm, S 2 = 20 cm, S 3 = 25 cm and S = 30 cm) and four weeding treatments (W 0 = No weeding, W = Weeding at 15 days after sowing (DAS), W 2 1 = Weeding at 15 and 30 days after sowing (DAS), and W = Weeding at 15, 30 and 45 days after sowing (DAS) were used. There were sixteen treatment combinations under the present study. Results showed that the highest plant height (60.26 cm) was achieved by 15 cm row spacing with three times of weeding. The highest number of leaves plant -1 (11.08), dry weight plant -1 (15.63 g), number of pods plant -1 (43.29), pod length (6.69 cm), number of seeds pod -1 (9.43), 1000 - seed weight (30.49 g), grain yield (1591 kg ha -1 ) and biological yield (3964 kg ha ) were gained by 30 cm row spacing with three times of weeding. The highest harvest index (44.26%) was achieved by 25 cm row spacing with two times of weeding. The highest weed biomass (fresh weight basis) was obtained with 25 cm row spacing with three times of weeding (654 kg ha -1 ) where 15 cm row spacing with one weeding (330 kg ha -1 ) showed the lowest weed biomass. But at the time of harvest the highest weed biomass was achieved from 15 cm row spacing with no weeding (796 kg ha ) where as the lowest was observed from 30 cm row spacing with three times of weeding (439 kg ha -1 ). With the treatment combination of 25 cm row spacing with two times of weeding showed very close yield (1585 kg ha -1 ) to the combination of 30 cm row spacing with three times of weeding (1591 kg ha -1 ). Hence, the grain yield from 25 cm row spacing with two times of weeding (1585 kg ha -1 ) and 30 cm row spacing with three times of weeding (1591 kg ha -1 ) were significantly similar; so, from economic point of view, 25 cm row spacing followed by two times of weeding was the best treatment combination. 3 4 -1 -1