Impact of Narrow and Broad leaf weeds on growth and productivity of maize under ridge and drill planting methods

Abstract

Weeds not only significantly impact crop quality by introducing unwanted seeds, which lowers the overall market value but also compete with maize for essential resources such as sunlight, water, and nutrients. Broad and narrow leaf weeds have a varying impact on productivity of maize. Furthermore, drill and ridge sowing are popular methods of maize among the farming community. Behavior of weed dynamics, including broad and narrow leaf weeds was investigated in a field experiment under both sowing methods of maize at Research Farm, Institute of Agronomy, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan. Full season competition with weeds reduced the growth and yield related traits including plant height, cob length, cob diameter, grain rows, biological yield and a 31% reduction grain yield. Broad and narrow leaf weeds reduced the grain yield by 29% and 25% respectively. Findings of this research suggested that weeds in general but broad leaf weeds in particular are more harmful, so, proper weed control strategies should be employed for better harvest.