Year: 2025 | Month: June | Volume 12 | Issue 1

Judicious Use of Weed-suppressive Living Mulches Reduces not only Reliance on Herbicides but also Optimizes Potato Yield

Mohammad Ahmadi Rasoul Fakhari Emmanuely Z. Nungula Sagar Maitra and Harun Gitari
DOI:10.30954/2347-9655.01.2025.2

Abstract :

The study was conducted at Mohaghegh Ardabili University during the 2022 and 2023 rain seasons to evaluate the effectiveness of different potato cultivars and cover crop mulches in managing weeds. The experiment was structured as a split plot with three replications, featuring three potato varieties: Agria, Jely, and Lady Rosetta. The weed management strategies included rye (Secale cereal L.), Berseem clover (Trifolium alexandrinum L.), paraquat herbicide, a weed-free control, and a weedy check. Results indicated that the Lady Rosetta cultivar combined with rye cover crop provided the best weed control, resulting in a total weed density of 22.5 plants/m² and a dry weight of 225.33 g/m², alongside a potato tuber yield of 71.4 t/ha. In contrast, the Jely cultivar paired with paraquat herbicide exhibited the weakest performance, with a total weed density of 49.66 plants/m², a dry weight of 605.33 g/m², and a yield of 37.6 t/ha. Notably, the highest density and dry weight of problematic weeds, such as pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus L.), were observed in the Jely × weedy check treatment. Analysis of variance revealed significant effects of the treatments on plant height, tuber greening percentage, average tuber weight per plant, tuber number, and overall yield. The interaction between cultivar and management practices showed that, excluding the weed-free treatment, the Lady Rosetta × Rye combination resulted in superior plant height, soil coverage percentage, tuber weight, and number compared to other treatments.

Highlights

  • The study evaluated the effectiveness of different potato cultivars and cover crop mulches in managing weeds.
  • Lady Rosetta cultivar combined with rye cover crop provided the best weed control while Jely cultivar paired with paraquat herbicide exhibited the weakest performance.
  • The highest density and dry weight of problematic weeds were observed in the Jely × weedy check treatments.


Print This Article Email This Article to Your Friend

Links

Similar In PUBMED

Search Pubmed for

* Mohammad Ahmadi * Rasoul Fakhari * Emmanuely Z. Nungula * Sagar Maitra and Harun Gitari

Search in Google Scholar for

* Mohammad Ahmadi * Rasoul Fakhari * Emmanuely Z. Nungula * Sagar Maitra and Harun Gitari

© International Journal of Information Science and Computing. | Published by IST Foundation, India 91060883 - Visitors since June 1, 2015

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.