Determination of the Critical Period for Weed Control in Corn

作者：Gantoli Geoffroy; Ayala Victor Rueda; Gerhards Roland^*

来源：Weed Technology, 2013, 27(1): 63-71.

DOI：10.1614/WT-D-12-00059.1

• Benin
• critical period for weed control
• crop-weed interaction
• yield loss

Field experiments were conducted in western Atakora, Benin, to determine the critical time period of weed competition in hand-weeded corn. Weeds were removed until different crop growth stages and then allowed to reemerge. Other treatments began weed control at different growth stages (four-, eight-, and ten-leaf stages and flowering) and were maintained until harvest. One treatment was permanently kept weed-free and one treatment was uncontrolled until harvest. Yields without weed competition ranged from 2.8 to 3.4 t ha(-1). As expected, yield loss increased with duration of weed infestation and ranged from 38 to 65 % compared to permanent weed-free plots. In three out of four site-years, the critical period for weed control started at the four- to six-leaf stage and continued until ten-leaf stage or flowering of corn. Approximately four hand-weeding applications were required in this critical period of weed control.

• 出版日期2013-3