Response of Sweet Corn Hybrid to Establishment Methods and Weed Management Practices under Temperate Conditions

A field experiment on “Response of Sweet corn hybrid to establishment methods and weed management practices under temperate conditions” was conducted at research farm of Faculty of Agriculture (SKUAST-K) kharif during 2017. The treatments comprised of three establishment methods (Transplanting polypot (TP),Transplanting nursery (TN) and Direct Seeding (DS) and six weed management practices (Atrazine @ 1.5 kg a.i. ha-1 as pre emergence + hand weeding and intercultivation at 30 days after sowing (W1), Pendimethalin @ 1.0kg a.i. ha-1 as pre emergence + hand weeding and intercultivation at 30 days after sowing DAS (W2), Pendimethalin @ 1.0 kg a.i. ha-1 pre emergence + Sulfosulfuran 60 g a.i. ha-1 as post emergence at 30 DAS (W3), Atrazine @ 1.5 kg a.i. ha-1 as pre emergence +Tumbotrione 120 g a.i. ha-1 as post emergence at 30 DAS (W4), Weed free (W5), Weedy check(W6) laid out in RCBD with three replications. Sweet corn variety Sugar-75 of Syngenta was used as the test variety. The seedling parameters were significantly superior in transplanting polyplot sown in green house. All the growth parameters (viz. plant height, dry matter production, leaf area index), days to tasseling, days to silking and yield parameters viz. number of cobs plant-1, number of grains cob-1, green cob yield and stover yield and harvest index) were observed to be significantly higher in transplanting polyplot. The plant height, leaf area index, dry matter accumulation and number of leaves were observed to be significantly higher in treatment of atrazine @ 1.5 kg a.i. ha-1 as pre emergence + tembotrione 120 g a.i. ha-1 as post emergence at 30 DAS (W4). Yield parameters viz., green cob yield and green fodder yield increased significantly in treatment of atrazine @ 1.5 kg a.i. ha-1 as pre emergence + tembotrione 120 g a.i. ha-1 as post emergence at 30 DAS (W4). It can concluded that under existing conditions transplanted polypot in combination with application of atrazine @ 1.5 kg a.i. ha-1 (pre-emergence) + tembotrione @ 120 g a.i. ha-1 (post-emergence) (TPW4) showed highest benefit cost ratio of 7.97 and proved superior for realizing higher yield and profitability of sweet corn under temperate conditions.