Evaluation of Different Weed Control Methods in Sunflower (Helianthus Annuus L.) Production

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of different hoeing-weed control methods on weed removal rates and the vegetative and generative properties of sunflower. The study was carried out in Tekirdag City of Turkey six different weed control methods in the experiments were applied. These methods were M (surface spraying method), Mh+ss (harrow and surface spraying method), M-bc (band spraying with inter-row cultivator), Mh+bc (harrow and band spraying vvith inter-row cultivator), M-e (inter-row cultivator), M-o (control). The experiment was arranged in the field using a randomized complete block design with three replications.In the study; weed numbers, weed removal rate, yield, plant height, stem diameter, head diameter and thousand seed weight were investigated. The maximum plant height (1817 min), stem diameter (23.19 mm) and TSW (71.40 g) valuesin addition to yield values (311.4 kg/da) were obtained for the M(h+bo)method while the minimum values of plant height (1590 mm), stem diameter (17.75 mm), and head diameter (217 mm) were attained from the M(e)application. On the other hand there were no significant difference between the M(o)and M-o applications interms of head diameter, TSW and yield values.The highest yield was measured in the Mb+be method (311.40 kg/da), the highest weed removal rate was obtained in the M-be method with 95.83%. The results of this research showed that the M-be andM(h+bo) methods had more positive effects on the sunflower yield parameters and weed removal rates than the other weed control methods.