2024, Vol. 7, Special Issue 6

author(s)
Rajesh P, Dudhat MS, T Sunil Kumar and S Ganapathi

abstract
An investigation was carried out during summer season of 2020-21 at College Farm, Department of Agronomy, N. M. College of Agriculture, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari to study the “Performance of summer sesamum (Sesamum indicum L.) under varying sowing dates and weed management practices”. The experiment was laid out in Split Plot Design having three main plot treatments (D₁: 2^nd Week of February, D₂: 3^rd Week of February and D₃: 4^th Week of February) and six sub plot treatments [W₁: Control (Weedy check), W₂: Weed free, W₃: Hand weeding (HW) at 20 DAS and 40 DAS, W₄: Pendimethalin @ 0.75 kg a.i/ha as pre-emergence (PE), W₅: Pendimethalin @ 0.75 kg a.i/ha as pre-emergence (PE) + one hand weeding (HW) at 30 DAS, W₆: Quizalofop-ethyl @ 0.05 kg a.i/ha as post-emergence (PoE) at 20 DAS] with four replications. Among various sowing dates, significantly the highest values of growth and yield attributes viz., plant height at harvest (97.64 cm), no. of primary branches per plant at harvest (3.04 no.), no. of capsule per plant at harvest (39.59 no.), no. of seeds per capsule at harvest (52.38 no.), seed yield (792.25 kg/ha) and stalk yield (1490.23 kg/ha) were recorded under sowing during 3^rd Week of February (D₂). Whereas, in case of weed management practices, significantly higher values of growth and yield attributes viz., plant height at harvest (99.65 cm), no. of primary branches per plant at harvest (3.34 no.), no. of capsule per plant at harvest (39.94 no.), no. of seeds per capsule (53.57 no.) at harvest seed yield (844.07 kg/ha) and stalk yield (1744.64 kg/ha) were recorded under the treatment of weed free (W₂) which remained at par with the treatments W₅ and W₃. Lower weed index and higher weed control efficiency were recorded in the treatment W₅ followed by the treatment W₃. Economics of the experiment show that among the sowing dates, the maximum benefit cost ratio (BCR) (2.45) were obtained under the sowing date D₂ (3^rd Week of February). While, in case of weed management practices, the treatment W₅ (2.18) recorded significantly maximum BCR. Based on experimental results, it can be concluded that to obtain higher profitable yield and effective weed control in summer sesamum, it should be sown during 3^rd week of February and spraying of pendimethalin @ 0.75 kg a.i./ha as pre-emergence (PE) + one hand weeding at 30 DAS or hand weeding at 20 DAS and 40 DAS under South Gujarat condition.