EFFECT OF WEED MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES FOR BETTER GROWTH AND YIELD OF PEA (Pisum sativum L.).

Though Pea is considered as one of the most important winter vegetable belonging to leguminoseae family is also very much prune to weed infestation. A study was conducted to observe the effect of various weed management techniques on weed density, plant growth, yield and yield contributing traits of pea. The experiments were laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with six treatments replicated thrice. During 2011-12, the earliest germination (5.33 days) took place in plots where black plastic and transparent plastic were laid out as mulch, followed by control and hand weeding plots (6.33 days). The significantly tallest plants (65.57 cm), lowest weed density (13.43 m²), minimum fresh weed biomass (35.72 g/m²), lowest dry weed biomass (12.54 g/m²), maximum number of pod per plant (21.03), the longest pods (7.54 cm), the highest weight of fresh pods per plant (44.17 g), number of gains per pod (8.02) and 100-grains weight (50.73 g) were recorded in hand weeded plots. Hand weeding recorded substantial increase in pod yield (8.63 t ha^-1) which was significantly the highest from all other treatments. In 2012-13, the significantly highest number of days taken to 50% flowering (65.33) was recorded in plots covered with white plastic. The lowest weed density (14.20 g/m²), least fresh weed biomass (42.32 g/ m²), the lowest dry weed biomass (15.19 g/ m²), maximum number of pod per plant (14.76), the highest weight of fresh pods per plant (44.17 g), the longest pods (6.97 cm), maximum number of gains per pod (6.43) and the highest 100-grains weight (52.06 g) were recorded in hand weeded plots. Significantly the highest pod yield (7.66 t ha^-1) was also recorded in hand weeding. It was concluded that during both the years, hand weeding surpassed all other techniques in minimizing weeds density, weeds fresh and dry biomass enhancing all other growth and yield parameters followed by transparent plastic mulch, black plastic mulch, Dual Gold and Stomp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]