Herbicides for weed management in lentil under rainfed drought prone ecology of Bihar

In context of the emerging challenge of weed management in lentil under rainfed drought prone ecologies in India, a field experiment was conducted in the winter seasons of 2012–13 and 2013–14 to evaluate the performance of different herbicides in lentil under rainfed conditions. Among the herbicidal treatments, the maximum plant height (40.5 cm), plant population (143.7 plants/m2), branches per plant (5.67), pods per plant (59.03), nodules per plant (21.27), dry weight of nodules per plant (29.44 mg) and dry matter accumulation (486.30 g/m2) of lentil at maturity were recorded in plots treated with pendimethalin (preemergence) followed by quizalofop-ethyl (post-emergence) at 750 g and 50 g/ha. Pendimethalin followed by quizalofop-ethyl recorded significantly lower weed index (12.97%) with higher grain yield (1741.0 kg/ha) as compared with control and it was closely followed by pendimethalin alone (14.64%). Imazamox plus imazethapyr caused severe crop phytotoxicity and the crop had a slow growth and reduced crop biomass. The maximum benefit cost ratio of 3.83 was recorded in the plot treated with pendimethalin at 750 g/ha (pre-emergence) as compared to other herbicides. Thus, pendimethalin alone and with quizalofop-ethyl were equally effective in controlling the broad-spectrum of weeds in lentil with high yield advantage.