Open Access

ARTICLE

Herbicide combinations to control the weed seedbank in an upland cotton field

Pereira JR¹, AE Duarte², JB Pitombeira³, MAP da Silva², NE de M Beltrão¹, LM Barros²
1 Embrapa Cotton, Rua Oswaldo Cruz, 1.143 – Centenário, CEP 58.428-095, Campina Grande, PB, Brazil, Tel.: (+55) 0xx8331824373, Fax: (+55) 0xx8331824367.
2 Cariri Regional University, Rua Cel. Antonio Luis, 1.161 – Pimenta, CEP 63.100-000, Tel.: 88 3102 1212, Crato, CE, Brazil;
3 Federal University of Ceará, Av. da Universidade, 2853 – Benfica, CEP 60020-181, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.
* Corresponding Author:Address Correspondence to: Jose R. Pereira, e-mail:

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2013, 82(all), 275-279. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2013.82.275

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in dryland conditions of the Brazilian Northeast to determine the number of viable weed seeds (seedbank) in an upland cotton crop, and its distribution in the soil profile, before and after using various herbicide treatments. A randomized block design in a split-plot block scheme with 6 replications was used, where the main plots were constituted by a factorial (13 treatments and 2 sampling soil depths), and the subplots by 2 sampling dates. The seedbank was determined by germination of the recovered weed seeds obtained from different soil depths. The highest number of viable weed seeds in the area was found before the application of the herbicide treatments at 0 - 10 cm soil depth. The treatments metalachlor + diuron; diuron + pendimethalin and the control (no herbicide treatment, weeded weekly during the entire cotton crop cycle) were the most effective in reducing the weed seedbank in the area.

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Keywords

Gossypium hirsutum L. r. latifolium H., Agro-ecosystem, Seed viability.

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