Soil microbial population as influenced by drone and robotic herbicide application and mechanical intercultivation under normal and high density planting system cotton

The present study was conducted at Regional Agricultural Research Station during (RARS), Palem, Nagarkurnool during kharif 2023 and 2024 to evaluate plant density and weed management methods influence on soil microbial populations under normal planting (90 × 60 cm) and high density planting (80 × 20 cm) and herbicide application through drone spaying, robotic spraying, manual knapsack spraying and robotic mechanical intercultivation in cotton. High density planting recoded significantly higher microbial populations of bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes at 30, 60, 90 DAS compared to normal planting and found non-significant at harvest. Among weed management methods robotic mechanical weeding recorded significantly higher microbial populations at 30 DAS and found non-significant at 60, 90 DAS and harvest. Herbicide application through drone, robot and manual knapsack spraying significantly reduced the microbial populations compared to weed free and weedy check treatments at 30 DAS only and at 60, 90 DAS and harvest there was no significance effect of applied herbicide. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of plant density and weed management methods on soil microbial populations (bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes).