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Plant Science Today (PST)

Research Articles

Vol. 13 No. sp2 (2026): Recent Advances in Agriculture

Dynamics of weed flora and integrated weed management for enhancing sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) productivity

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.13591
Submitted
9 January 2026
Published
08-06-2026

Abstract

At the instructional farm of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), Bhubaneswar, a field experiment was carried out in the rabi season of 2022–23 to investigate the impact of integrated weed management techniques on productivity of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.). The experiment was laid out in a factorial randomised block design (FRBD) with the conventional spacing of 60 cm × 30 cm and seven weed management treatments: T1: pendimethalin 1 kg a. i. ha-1 as pre-emergence followed by one power weeding at 35 days after sowing (DAS); T2: one power weeding at 35 DAS; T3: pendimethalin 1 kg a. i. ha-1 as pre-emergence followed by quizalofop-p-ethyl  37.5 g a.i. ha-1 at 20 DAS; T4: farmers practice (two inter cultivations at 20 and 40 DAS followed by one hand weeding at 30 DAS); T5: one intercultivation at 20 DAS followed by one hand weeding at 30 DAS; T6: weed-free condition (three hand weedings at 15, 30 and 45 DAS); and T7: unweeded control, replicated thrice. Sunflower hybrid DRSH-1 was used as the test crop. Eighteen weed species were predominant in the experimental site, with broadleaf weeds accounting for the majority (55.6 %), followed by grasses (33.3 %) and sedges (11.1 %). At every stage of growth, the weed-free treatment had the best weed control efficiency (WCE), whereas farmers practices had the lowest weed index (WI). The maximum head diameter (17.0 cm), filled seeds per head (1243) and lowest sterility (6.12 %) were observed in weed-free plots, which were comparable to farmers practices. The unweeded control had the lowest yields, whereas weed-free circumstances produced the highest seed yield (2048 kg ha-1), harvest index (32.05 %) and oil production (819 kg ha-1), which were equivalent to farmers practices and specific integrated weed management treatments.

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