Weed dynamics under diverse nutrient management and crop rotation practices in the dry zone of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Integrated weed control strategies are essential for organic and integrated nutrient management, where both systems are progressing with a fundamental of zero or minimum synthetic chemical cultivations. For optimizing the outcome of weed management, a better understanding of the weed dynamic is needed. Especially, with the absence of herbicides, weeds are expected to be controlled by the system itself, during the transition period under rice-based crop rotation systems. This study was conducted to estimate the weed abundance, growth, and composition during the transitional period with conventional (CONV), integrated (INT), and organic (ORG) nutrient management under four crop diversification intensities in a dry zone of Sri Lanka. Monocrop rice and a rice-maize rotation were the starting point. After 1 year, the diversification intensity was increased by adding interseason sunnhemp (rice-sunnhemp-rice and rice-sunnhemp-maize). Weed density and weed biomass were measured at 20 DAS and 60 DAS intervals. Weed density was higher in ORG during the early growth stages of monocrop rice rotation in the 1st cycle, and monocrop rice and rice-sunnhemp-rice rotation in the 2nd cycle while didn’t show any changes during the later growth stage of all systems in both cycles. The total weed biomass in ORG increased with increasing crop diversification. Overall, crop rotation in INT reported the lowest weed density and biomass after two cycles. In the CONV with rice-sunnhemp-maize rotation, weed biomass had declined, while in ORG grass biomass decreased only in sunnhemp cultivated rotations. Overall, INT was the best for weed suppression irrespective of crop rotation intensities. Monoculture with rice in the INT was able to suppress weed more effectively than rice-maize rotation.