Journal of Experimental Agriculture International

Aims: To study the combined effect of irrigation scheduling and cow urine on weed dynamics.

Place and Duration of Study: A field experiment was conducted in the rabi 2019-20 and 2020-21 on the research farm of the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

Methodology: The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with three main plots, seven subplots, and that was replicated thrice. The main plot factors were I₁-Irrigation Water (IW)/Cumulative Pan Evaporation (CPE) 0.7, I₂-IW/CPE 1.0, and I₃-IW/CPE 1.2. The subplots were C₁: Control, C₂: spray of cow urine at the CRI stage of wheat, C₃: spray of cow urine at the CRI + tillering stage of wheat, C₄: spray of cow urine at the CRI + tillering + late jointing stage of wheat, C₅: spray of cow urine at the CRI + tillering + late jointing + flowering stage of wheat, C₆: spray of cow urine at the CRI + tillering + late jointing + flowering + milking stage of wheat, and C₇: spray of cow urine at the CRI + tillering + late jointing + flowering + milking + maturity stage of wheat. Each treatment received a total quantity of 4000 liters of cow urine per ha; for example, C₃ had cow urine spray at the CRI stage and tillering stage of wheat. So cow urine is applied in C₃ treatment as follows: at the CRI stage @ 2000 liters per ha and at the tillering stage @ 2000 liters per ha. The observations were recorded on the basis of various aspects pertaining to the density and dry biomass of Vicia sativa. The data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA), and the means were interpreted by the least significant difference (LSD) test at the 5% level.

Results: Irrigation schedules and cow urine spray did not show any significant effect on the density and dry biomass of Vicia sativa at various growth stages of wheat during both study periods. In the case of irrigation schedules, the lowest density of Vicia sativa was noted under the I₃ at 30 days after sowing in both years of the experiment. Hence the lowest density of Vicia sativa was noted under I₃   in the first year and I₁ at 60 and 90 days after sowing during both the study period. The maximum density of Vicia sativa was recorded under I₂ at 30 and 60 days after sowing in both years of the experiment. In case of irrigation schedules, the minimum dry biomass was noted under I₁ at 30 days after sowing in both years of the experiment. However, the utmost dry biomass of Vicia sativa was recorded under I₃ in the first year and I₁ during the second year at 60 and 90 days after sowing of the experiment. In the case of cow urine, the lowest dry biomass of Vicia sativa was found under C₂ at 30 days after sowing during both years of the experiment. However, at 60 days after sowing, the minimum dry biomass of Vicia sativa was noted under the C₃ in the first year and C₅ in the second year. Hence, at 90 days after sowing of the experiment, the minimum dry biomass of Vicia sativa was observed under C₄ during both years of the experiment.

Conclusion: The result revealed that the density and dry biomass of Vicia sativa were not significantly influenced by irrigation schedules and cow urine spray at different intervals during the both year of the experiment.