Improving Some Vegetative Growth Characters, Yield and its Components by the Effect of Weed Control Treatments and Plant Densities in Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out in the summer season in the field of a farmer in the Zankora/Ramadi/Anbar Governorate, located at longitude 43° E and latitude 38° N, in silty loam texture soil to study the effect of weed control treatments and different plant densities on growth characteristics, yield and its components of sesame crop. The complete randomized block design (R.C.B.D) was used in a Split Plot arrangement with three replications. The plant densities allocated to the main plot (100000, 80000, and 66666 plants ha-1), and the sub plot included several weed control treatments, which are the use of the mechanical method with three levels, which is the manual hoeing process once, twice and three times during the growing season, in addition to the two control treatments (the weed free and the weedy treatments). The results showed that there is a clear effect of different weed treatments on all the traits under study. The weedy treatment achieved the highest mean number and density of weeds after 60 and 90 days of planting, which amounted to 25, 17.8 plants m-2, while the three hoeing treatments achieved the highest percentage of inhibition in the dry weight of the weeds, which was 93.27%, the free weeds treatment gave the highest mean of stem diameter, plant dry weight and 500-seed weight, and the individual plant yield was 1.43 cm, 163 gm, 2.05 gm, and 265.20 gm, respectively. Whereas the effect of plant densities showed that there was no significant effect on most of the studied traits. As for the two-way interaction between weed control treatments and plant densities, it had a significant effect on yield characteristics, as treatment W4D1 recorded the lowest mean of weeds after 60 days of planting (2.33 plants m-2), Also, treatment W3D3 recorded the highest inhibition rate of 94.61%, and treatment W4D2 recorded the highest mean leaf area index of 5.04, while weed free treatment W1 when interacted with plant density D3 had the highest mean of stem diameter trait that was 1.54 cm. The treatment W1D1 recorded the highest value of the dry weight of the plant, which was 196 gm. It also affected the yield of the individual plant when it was interacting with the highest mean of 291.70 gm, which was positively reflected in improving most of the vegetative growth characteristics and some yield traits.