PERFORMANCE OF DIFFERENT HERBICIDES FOR THE CONTROL OF WILD OATS AND YIELD OF WHEAT CROP UNDER ARID CLIMATE OF PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

A field study was conducted at Adaptive Research Farm, Karor (District Layyah), during 2007-08, to evaluate the efficacy of different post emergence herbicides on narrow leave weed (Avena fatua) in wheat crop. The Experiments were laid out in Randomized complete block (RCBD) design with threereplications and plot size was 8 m x 13 m during both the years. Four different herbicides viz. Topik @ 300 g ha-1, puma super @ 625 mL ha-1, Pujing @ 625 mL ha-1 and fenoxaprop @ 625 mL ha-1. A control (untreated) treatment was also included in the trial. The observations i.e. number of weeds afterspray/m2, Plant height (cm), number of tillers m-1, number of spikelets per spike, number of grains per spike and grain yield (kg ha-1) were recorded. All the herbicides significantly decreased weed population over control and maximum grain yield (4167 kg ha-1) was obtained where Topik@300 g ha-1 was applied. It was however, statistically at par with the grain yield obtained by the application of Puma super @ 625 mL ha-1(4100kg ha-1), Pujing @ 625mL ha-1 (3833 kg ha-1) and fenoxaprop @ 625 mL ha-1 (3817 kg ha-1. It is thus recommended that Topic and Puma super may be applied @300 g and 625 mL ha-1, respectively for the control of narrow leave weeds of wheat.