TY  - BOOK
AU  - Minu Mariya Issac 
AU  - Mini Abraham (Guide)
TI  - Herbigation in Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench)
U1  - 630 
PY  - 2021///
CY  - Vellanikkara 
PB  - Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture
KW  - Agronomy
KW  - Herbigation
KW  - Okra
KW  - Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench
N1  - M Sc
N2  - Herbigation is the method of application of herbicides through irrigation 
water. Conventional method of herbicide application takes considerable time and 
expensive due to the increasing cost of manual labour. Also, heavy wind at the time 
of spraying and improper application causes more herbicide loss, environmental 
pollution and drift injury to the nearby fields especially on sensitive crops. 
Herbigation ensures no additional costs of application. Okra is one of the important 
vegetable crop of Kerala. Weed competition during early stage of crop growth 
significantly lowers crop yields. Heavy weed infestation in okra is mainly due to 
wider spacing, slower crop growth during early stages, high fertilizer use and 
frequent irrigation. Therefore, the present study was undertaken with a view to study 
the effect of herbigation through drip irrigation system in okra and also to evaluate 
the economic feasibility of the system. 
The experiment was conducted at Water Management Research Unit,
Vellanikkara from December 2019 to April 2020. The experiment was laid out in 
RBD with ten treatments and three replications. Treatments comprised of 
herbigation and conventional spraying of oxyfluorfen applied in two doses (0.15 kg 
ha-1 & 0.20 kg ha-1) at two different time of application , a hand weeded control and 
an unweeded control. The okra variety used was Arka Anamika. 
Predominant grasses seen in the plots were Panicum maximum, Digitaria 
sanguinalis, Brachiaria miliformis, Digitaria bicornis and Axonopus compressus.
Predominant broad leaved weeds were Ageratum conyzoides, Euphorbia hirta, 
Mollugo disticha, Cleome burmanii, Trianthema portulacastrum, Alternanthera 
bettzickiana, and Synedrella nodiflora. The sedges present were Cyperus spp., and 
Bulbostylis barbata in the experimental field. Observations on weed count showed 
that application of oxyfluorfen was effective in controlling both grass and broad 
leaved weeds. 
Maximum weed control efficiency was observed in conventional spraying 
with oxyfluorfen @ 0.20 kg ha-1 two days before sowing followed by hand weeding at 
30 DAS with 91.31 per cent at 20 DAS; conventional spraying with oxyfluorfen @ 
0.15 kg ha-1 two days before sowing followed by hand weeding at 30 DAS with 90.08 
per cent at 50 DAS and hand weeded control recorded 90.59 per cent at 80 DAS. 
Lowest weed index was recorded from herbigation with oxyfluorfen @ 0.15 kg ha-1
two days before sowing followed by hand weeding at 30 DAS followed by the 
treatment conventional spraying with oxyfluorfen @ 0.15 kg ha-1 two days before 
sowing followed by hand weeding at 30 DAS. Even though, conventional spraying 
recorded lesser weed count and weed dry weight, the yield was less due to the 
scorching of crop foliage. During herbigation, herbicide is applied through drip to the 
crop root zone, due to which weeds in the interspaces that can germinate in water 
stress conditions will grow. While in conventional spraying, the entire cropped area 
come in contact with herbicide and results in complete control of weeds. The nutrient 
removal by weeds was maximum in unweeded control. 
Herbigation with oxyfluorfen @ 0.15 kg ha-1 two days before sowing followed 
by hand weeding at 30 DAS was on par with hand weeded control in terms of plant 
height, number of leaves and leaf area. It also recorded highest number of fruits per 
plant (17.8), average fruit weight (13.73 g), fruit yield per plant (243.90 g) and fruit 
yield (13.02 t ha-1). It was on par with hand weeded control (13.04 t ha-1), 
conventional spraying with oxyfluorfen @ 0.15 kg ha-1 two days before sowing 
followed by hand weeding at 30 DAS and herbigation @ 0.20 kg ha-1 two days before 
sowing followed by hand weeding at 30 DAS. Weed competition resulted in 58.97 per 
cent yield reduction in okra. Unweeded control recorded significantly lower fruit yield 
(5.35 t ha-1). 
Both conventional spraying and herbigation with oxyfluorfen @ 0.15 kg ha-1
two days before sowing followed by hand weeding at 30 DAS were equally effective 
in controlling weeds. Herbigation with oxyfluorfen @ 0.15 kg ha-1 two days before 
sowing followed by hand weeding at 30 DAS resulted in higher gross return, net 
return and B: C ratio (1.97) which was closely followed by conventional spraying 
with oxyfluorfen @ 0.15 kg ha-1 two days before sowing followed by hand weeding at 
30 DAS (1.89). The result of the study revealed that the farmers can adopt either 
herbigation or conventional spraying of oxyfluorfen according to their convenience 
because both treatments performed equally well. Herbigation can be implemented in 
fields in which already fertigation is carried out because it doesn’t involve any 
additional costs
UR  -  https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810198003
ER  -