Weed control in corn and weed sample size for growth evaluations

• Autor(a) principal: Tavella,L.B.
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Silva,P.S.L., Oliveira,V.R., Fernandes,P.L.O., Sousa,R.P.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Planta daninha (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-83582014000100006
• topic: Zea mays; Gliricidia sepium; integrated control; hoeing; intercropping; corn yield

The objectives of this study were to evaluate baby corn yield, green corn yield, and grain yield in corn cultivar BM 3061, with weed control achieved via a combination of hoeing and intercropping with gliricidia, and determine how sample size influences weed growth evaluation accuracy. A randomized block design with ten replicates was used. The cultivar was submitted to the following treatments: A = hoeings at 20 and 40 days after corn sowing (DACS), B = hoeing at 20 DACS + gliricidia sowing after hoeing, C = gliricidia sowing together with corn sowing + hoeing at 40 DACS, D = gliricidia sowing together with corn sowing, and E = no hoeing. Gliricidia was sown at a density of 30 viable seeds m-2. After harvesting the mature ears, the area of each plot was divided into eight sampling units measuring 1.2 m² each to evaluate weed growth (above-ground dry biomass). Treatment A provided the highest baby corn, green corn, and grain yields. Treatment B did not differ from treatment A with respect to the yield values for the three products, and was equivalent to treatment C for green corn yield, but was superior to C with regard to baby corn weight and grain yield. Treatments D and E provided similar yields and were inferior to the other treatments. Therefore, treatment B is a promising one. The relation between coefficient of experimental variation (CV) and sample size (S) to evaluate growth of the above-ground part of the weeds was given by the equation CV = 37.57 S-0.15, i.e., CV decreased as S increased. The optimal sample size indicated by this equation was 4.3 m².