Crop establishment, Herbicides, Machine planting, Weed management

A field experiment was conducted in strip-plot design with three crop establishment techniques and six weed management practices to study the effect of crop establishment and weed management on weeds and yield of lowland rice at Coimbatore during Rabi 2011-12 and 2012-13. The field was dominated by Echinochloa colona, Cyperus difformis, Eclipta alba, Marselia quadrifoliata and Ammania baccifera. The results revealed that  machine planting (30 x 20 cm) and subsequent cono-weeding at 10, 20, 30 and 40 days after transplanting (DAT) registered lower density and biomass of sedges, grasses, broad-leaved and total weeds resulting in higher grain yield than other treatments. Weed control efficiency  (93.2 and 90.8% in 2011-12, and 2012-13, respectively) was higher with this treatment compared with the other treatments. Next best treatment was the machine planting with pretilachlor (0.75 kg/ha at 3 DAT) + bispyribac-sodium (20 g/ha at 15 DAT) + cono-weeding at 40 DAT.