Vol. 9, Special Issue 9, Part W (2025)

A field investigation was carried out during the summer season of 2019 to study the performance of summer sesame under different weed management practices in red and lateritic soil of West Bengal, India. The experiment was laid out in randomised block design consisting of eight treatments viz., pendimethalin @ 750 g ha^-1 as pre-emergence (PE) (T₁), butachlor @ 1000 g ha^-1 as PE (T₂), pendimethalin @ 750 g ha^-1 as PE followed by (fb) hand weeding (HW) at 30 days after sowing (DAS) (T₃), butachlor @ 1000 g ha^-1 as PE fb HW at 30 DAS (T₄), hand weeding at 15 DAS (T₅), hand weeding at 15 and 30 DAS (T₆), weed free check (T₇) and weedy check (T₈) which were replicated thrice. The weeds found in the experimental field were Digitaria sanguinalis, Echinochloa colona, Cynodon dactylon, Dactyloctenium aegyptium, Eleusine indica, Cyperus rotundus, Cyperus esculentus, Trianthema portulacastrum, Alternanthera sessilis, Euphorbia hirta, Cleome viscosa and Heliotropium indicum. Sole application of pendimethalin and butachlor (T₁ and T₂) significantly reduced the population and dry weight of grass and broadleaved weeds than weedy check. The dry weight of sedges was not reduced significantly by the sole application of pendimethalin and butachlor as pre-emergence over weedy check. These herbicides when followed by one hand weeding at 30 DAS reduced the weed population and dry weight at later stage and thereby resulted higher growth parameters than their sole application. Uninterrupted weed infestation resulted 62.66% yield loss in summer sesame. The highest net return was observed in sole application of pendimethalin @ 750 g ha^-1 as PE (Rs.43570 ha^-1) which was statistically at par with T₂, T₃ and T₄ but was significantly higher than T₅, T₆ and T₇.