Abstract

The experiments were conducted on sandy clay loam soils during Rabi (November to March) and Kharif (June to September) season of 2013 to study the effect of herbicides at low concentrations as growth regulators on productivity of maize. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with three herbicides at different concentrations (2, 4-D@50 ppm, atrazine@100 ppm and glyphosate @5 ppm) along with control. The results were indicative that low herbicide concentrations promoted that growth and yield attributes in maize. Application of 2, 4-D@50 ppm significantly increased growth parameters (plant height, number of green leaves plant-1 , LAI and DMP) and yield attributes viz. length of cob and corn, weight of cob and corn, whereas significantly reduced cob-corn ratio, in comparison with Atrazine@100ppm and Glyphosate@5ppm. Phenological stages such as days to tassel emergence and cob initiation and yield attributes viz. width of cob and corn, numbers of cobs plant-1 , No. of cobs ha-1 were not significantly influenced by the herbicides. Increased growth parameters (LAI and DMP), yield attributes (length of cob and corn, weight of cob and corn) due to 2,4-D@50ppm led to higher green cob yield (14.2% over control) and green fodder yield of baby corn over control.