Feasibility of Reducing Sulfosulforun Herbicide Application in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) by Nitrogen Application Management

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• E. Izadi-Darbandi
• M. Rastgoo
• R. African

10.22067/jpp.v29i4.34532

Abstract

Introduction: Wheat is the main crop cultivated through out the world. Around 60 percent acreage of world farms belong to cereal crops from which, 33 percent belong to wheat production. In Iran wheat also is the dominant cereal crop accounting for almost 70 percent of cereal production. Iran wheat production in 2013 was about 14 million tones, and average grain yield 3750 Kg ha-1, is much lower than developing countries such as France ( 6800 Kg ha-1 ), Germany (7000 Kg ha-1 ) UK (7500 Kg ha-1 ) Japan ( 5000 Kg ha-1 ) and China (4900 Kg ha-1. The reasons for low yield include conventional planting methods, costly inputs, improper land preparation, imbalanced fertilizer application, lack of coordination between growers and mill owners, natural calamities and shortage of irrigation water and heavy weed infestation. Among these, poor management of fertilizers and weeds are the major cause of low wheat production in Iran. The use of herbicides for weed control in wheat is a common practice in management of weeds. But environmental and economical aspects, uncertainty in the long-term efficacy of chemical weed control methods are the most important issues that have caused researchers and farmers seeking to introduce an alternative to herbicides or to reduce the use of herbicides. Among herbicides, sulfonylurea’s such as sulfosulforun is one of the most important herbicides in wheat field. However, sulfosulforun is an effective herbicide for weed control. But its active soil residual, may damage rotational crops. Due to importance of nitrogen fertilizer management in wheat yield improvement, present study was designed to investigate the effect of nitrogen fertilizer application methods on weed management of wheat and reducing sulfosulforun herbicide under agro-climatic conditions of Mashhad, Iran.
Materials and Methods: In order to evaluate sulfosulforun reducing dose, by nitrogen application management, an experiment was performed as split factorial plot, based on randomized complete block design with three replications at research farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, in 2012. Treatments included, nitrogen application methods (Broadcast and Band), the amount of nitrogen application (100, 200 and 400 kg ha-1 )(46% urea source) equal to 46, 92 and 184 kg ha-1 nitrogen per hectare, as complete factorial plots and sulfosulforun doses (100, 75 and 50 % of recommended dose (26.6 g (75% EC (emulsifiable concentrate)) as sub plots, applied at wheat tillering stage. Weed density and relative frequency were recorded 149, 177 and 210 days after wheat planting. Wheat biomass and seed yield per 1 m-2 were recorded at the end of the experiments. Analysis of variance of data was carried out with SAS software and for means comparison LSD (p≤0.05) test was used.
Results and Discussion: Results showed that band application of nitrogen, reduced weed density and weed biomass significantly. By increasing nitrogen dose, mentioned parameters were increased significantly in both methods on nitrogen application. The highest weed density (29.27 plant m-2) were observed when sulfosulforun was not applied and the method of nitrogen application was broadcasted. The lowest weed density (12.78 plant m-2) observed at solfosulforun recommended dose and nitrogen band application treatment. The method of nitrogen application affected the amount of solfosulforun application. Based on the results, the effect of sulfosulforun at 75% and 50% of the recommended dose, didn’t effect significantly (p 0.05) on weed control when nitrogen applied in band with solfosulforun at recommended dose on weed control when nitrogen applied broadcast. Similar results were observed for wheat seed yield and wheat biomass. Wheat seed yield (343.40 g m-2) and wheat biomass (1141.50 g m-2) at solfosulforun recommended dose, when nitrogen applied in band, was not significantly different from 75% recommended dose of solfosulforun and nitrogen broadcast application method.
Conclusion: Based on the results of experiment, the amount of nitrogen and its application method concludes an acceptable approach for wheat integrated weed management. It can optimize nitrogen fertilizer and solfusulforun herbicide usage, which are the main concerns in wheat production economically and ecologically. However nitrogen band application reduced the amount of nitrogen fertilizer and solfusulforun herbicide. Due to various factors affecting the competitive relationship between weeds and crops, it is suggested that in future the use of other herbicides, in different places and different crops to be considered.

Keywords

• Nitrogen band application
• nitrogen broadcast application. Reducing of herbicide application

20.1001.1.20084749.1394.29.4.11.0

---

References

1- Andreasen C., Streibig J.C. and Hass H. 1991. Soil properties affecting the distribution of 37 weed species in Danish fields. Weed Research, 31:181-187.

2- Azad M. 2012. Evaluation of soil nitrogen content and water hardness on glyphosate efficacy on redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus L.) and common lambsquarter (Chenopodium album L.) control. M. SC. Thesis. Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. 95 p.

3- Banks P.A., Santelmann P.W., and Tucker B.B. 1976. Influence of long term soil fertility treatments on weed species in winter wheat. Agronomy Journal, 68: 825-828.

4- Bhardwaj G. 2007. From pioneering invention to sustained innovation: Herbicides at dupont, Chemical Heritag, Online:http://www.chemheritage.org/pubs/chv25n1- articles/feature_herbicides.html.August2010.

5- Blackshaw R.E, and Molnar L.J. 2004. Nitrogen fertilizer timing and application method affect growth and competition with spring wheat. Weed Science. 52:416- 427.

6- Blackshaw R.E. 2004. Application method of nitrogen fertilizer affects weed growth and competition with winter wheat. Weed Biology and Management, 4:103-113.

7- Blackshaw R.E. 2005. Nitrogen fertilizer, manure and compost effects on weed and competition with spring wheat. Agronomy Journal, 97: 1672-1621.

8- Blackshaw R.E., Brandt R.N., Janzen Entz H.H., GrantT.C.A. and Derksen D.A. 2003. Differential response of weed species to added nitrogen. Weed Science, 51:532-539.

9- Blackshaw R.E., Brandt R.N., Janzen H.H. and Entz T. 2004. Weed species response to phosphorus fertilization. Weed Science, 52:406-412.

10- Blackshaw R.E., Semach G. and Janzen H.H. 2002. Nitrogen uptake in weeds and wheat. Weed Science, 50: 634-641.

11- Casper B.B., and Jackson R.B. 1997. Plant competition underground. Annual Review Systems, 28:545-570.

12- Cathcart R.J., and Swanton C.J. 2003. Nitrogen management will influence threshold values of green foxtail (Setaria viridis) in corn. Weed Science, 51:975-986.

13- Cathcart R.J., Chandler K. and Swanton C.J. 2004. Fertilizer nitrogen rate and the response of weeds to herbicides. Weed Science, 52:291–296.

14- Evance S.P., Kenzevic S.Z., Lindquist J.L., and Shapiro C.A. 2003. Influence of nitrogen and duration of weed interference on corn growth and development. 51:546-556.

15- Heap I. 2010. International survey of herbicide resistant weeds. http://www.weedscience.com. Accessed: November 07, 2011.

16- Izadi-Darbandi E., Rashed Mohassel M. H. and Azad M. 2012. Effect of amount and methods of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer applications in wheat weed density and growth. Iranian Journal of Weed Science. 8:79-91. (in Persian with English abstract).

17- Izadi-Darbandi E., Rashed Mohassel M.H. and Dehghan M. 2012. Evaluation of single- vs. twins- row systems and application methods of fertilizer in Wheat Weeds Management. Iranian Journal of Weed Science. 8:27-39. (in Persian with English abstract)

18- Izadi-Darbandi E., Rastgoo M., Ghanbari A. and African R. 2015. Evaluation the effect of corn (Zea mays L.) Sowing Pattern and Nitrogen Application Method on foramsulfuron (Equip®) herbicide optimizing and reducing dose. Journal of plant protection (Agricultural Science and Technology). In Press. (in Persian with English abstract).

19- Kim D.S., Marshall E.J.P., Caseley J. C. and Brain P. 2006. Modelling interactions between herbicide and nitrogen fertilizer in terms of weed response. Weed Research, 46: 480–491.

20- Konesky D.W., Siddiei M.Y. and Glass A.D.M. 1989. Wild oat and barley interactions: varietal differences in competitiveness in relation to phosphorus supply. Canadian Journal of Botany, 67:3366-3371.

21- Liebman M., and Davis A.S. 2000. Integrated of soil, crop and weed management in low external input farming systems. Weed Research, 40:27-47

22- Massinga R.A., Currie R.S., Trooien T.P. 2003 Water use and light interception under palmer amaranth (Amaranthuse palmeri) and corn competition. Weed Science, 51:523-531.

23- Mithila J., Swanton C.J., Blackshaw R.E., Cathcart R.J. and Hall J.C. 2008. Physiological Basis for Reduced Glyphosate Efficacy on weeds grown under low soil nitrogen. Weed Science, 56:12–17.

24- Miyazawa K., Tsuji H., Yamagata M., Nakano H., and Nakamoto T. 2004. Response of weed flora to combination of reduced tillage, biocide application and fertilization practices in a 3- year crop rotation. 2004. Weed Boilogy and Management, 4:24-34.

25- Russell M.H., Saladini J.L. and Lichtner F. 2002. Sulfonylurea herbicides. Pesticide Outlook: 166-173.

26- Santos B.M., Duskey J.A., Stall W.M., Shilling D.G. and Bewick T.A. 1998. Phosphorus effects on competitive interactions of smooth pigweed (Amaranthus hybridus) and common purslane(Portulaca oleracea) with lettuce (Lactuca sativa). Weed Science, 46:307-312.

27- Van Delden A., Lotz A., Bastiaans L., Frank A.C., Smid H.G., Groeneveld R.M.W., and Kropf M.J. 2002. The influene of nitrogen supply on the ability of wheat and potato to suppress Stellaria media growth and reproduction. Weed Research, 42:429-445.

28- Verma R., Agrawal H.R., and Nepalia V. 1999. Effect of weed control and phosphorus on crop-weed competition in fenugreek (Trigonella foenicum-graecum). Indian Journal of Weed Science, 31:265-266.

29- Vermey D.J. 2008. Interactions between nitrogen and velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti L.) densities on glufosinate and glyphosate efficacy. MSc Thesis, the Faculty of Graduate Studies of the University of Guelph.

30- Wahle E.A., Masiunas J.B. 2003. Comparison of nitrogen use by two population densities of eastern black nightshade (Solanum ptycanthum). Weed Science, 51:394-401.

31- Zimdahl R.L. 1999. Fundamental of weed science. Academic press. Inc. 460 p.