Soil Microflora and Weed Management as Influenced by Atrazine 50 % WP in Sugarcane

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to know the effect of atrazine 50 % WP on the weeds, cane yield of sugarcane and its effect on soil microflora at 'C' Block Farm, BCKV, Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, India during 2010-11 to 2011-12. Higher dose of atrazine @ 4.0 kg ha -1 recorded better weed control efficiency (84.51, 81.74 and 78.94 %, respectively at 10, 35 and 60 DAA). All the treatments of weed control gave the significantly higher cane yield over the control. The data on cane yield revealed that highest cane yield was recorded where the Atrazine 50 % WP @ 4.0 kg ha -1 was applied as pre-emergence but it was at par in case of lower dose of atrazine 50 % WP @ 2.0 kg ha -1 followed by ametryn 80%WP@2.0kg a.i. ha -1 .Weed management treatments recorded no significant variation on brix %, sugar % and CCS%. All the herbicide treatments recorded detrimental effect on soil microflora (total bacteria, actinomycetes and fungi) immediately after application but after their persistence period, their populations were recovered and sometimes exceeds than their initial count.