Weed management in Allium: A review

Among the spice crop onion and garlic are most important and widely cultivated crop in India. Allium crops are highly vulnerable to weed infestation due to its slow emergence and slow initial growth, non-branching habit, sparse foliage, shallow root system. Weeds compete for nutrients, soil, moisture, space and light considerably reducing the yield, quality and value through increased production and harvesting costs. Weed infestation in onion and garlic is one of the major factors for loss in yield and bulb loss to the tune of 30-60 per cent. Manual hand weeding is a very tedious and labour expensive method of weed control. Sometimes due to shortage of labour and unexpected rains, hand weeding or mechanical weed operations are delayed or left altogether. The chemical weed control in onion and garlic has received little attention and weeds are mostly managed manually. In such situation, herbicides offer the most practical, more effective and economical method of weed control for increasing bulb yield of allium crops. The herbicide like Oyxfluorfen +Quizalofop ethyl, Pendimethalin, alone or combination are effective for controlling weed flora in Allium crops.