Estudio de herbicidas en el cultivo de cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) en la zona de Pueblo Nuevo, cantón Babahoyo

This experimental work was carried out on the land owned by Mr. Rafael Almeida Vera, on the Rcto. Pueblo Nuevo, Febres Cordero Parish, Babahoyo canton, between the geographical coordinates of 010 94`98 ”South Latitude and 790 30`81” West Longitude, with a height of 8 masl. This area has a humid tropical climate, with an average annual temperature of 25 ° C, an annual precipitation of 1845 mm, relative humidity of 74%, and is located at a height of 8 m.a.s.l. The established cocoa crop CCN-51 was used as study material. The treatments studied were Propanil in doses of 3.0 and 4.0 L / ha; Paraquat in doses of 1.5 and 3.0 L / ha; Glufosinate Ammonium in doses of 1.5 and 3.0 L / ha; Diquat in doses of 1.0 and 2.0 L / ha and a control treatment, without application of herbicides. In accordance with the proposed treatments, the experimental design "Random blocks" was used, with 9 treatments and 3 repetitions using the Tukey test at 95% probability. The agricultural work that the crop requires such as weed and phytosanitary control, irrigation, pruning, fertilization and harvesting were carried out. Based on the results presented, it was determined that the herbicides used in cocoa cultivation (Theobroma cacao L.) in the Pueblo Nuevo area, Babahoyo canton, obtained slight damage in relation to the toxicity index at 7 and 14 days, disappearing from the 21 days; The greatest weed control from 14 to 49 days was presented by the treatment that used Ammonium Glufosinate at a dose of 3.0 L / ha and the variables of diameter and length of the ear, ears per plant, seeds per ears, average ear weight and weight of 100 seeds reported the highest averages when Ammonium Glufosinate was used at a dose of 3.0 L / ha.