Effect of weed management practices on growth and yield of rainfed castor

A field experiment was conducted during kharif, 2023 to study the effect of different weed management practices on rainfed castor at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Palem. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replication and nine treatments. The results showed that a weed free condition led to the highest growth and yield attributing characters in rainfed castor and highest seed yield (2264 kg ha^-1) recorded due to higher weed control efficiency of 90.5%, reduced weed density (4.7 No. m^-2) and weed dry matter (3.5 g. m^-2). Among the herbicidal treatments, application of diclosulam 84% WDG 31 g a.i. ha^-1 as pre-emergence (PE) followed by intercultivation with power weeder at 30 DAS and diclosulam 84% WDG 31 g a.i. ha^-1 as pre-emergence (PE) followed by quizalofop-p-ethyl 15% EC 50 g a.i. ha^-1 as post-emergence (PoE) at 30 DAS higher seed yield par with weed free treatment. This suggests that these treatments are effective alternatives for achieving similar weed control and yield benefits as weed free treatment.