INFLUENCE OF INTENSIFICATION LEVELS ON WEED INFESTATION OF CROPS AND GRAIN YIELD OF BARLEY IN THE CONDITIONS OF KURSK REGION

Abstract

Studies were carried out in Kursk region in 2015-2017, their purpose was to study different methods of basic tillage and herbicides in cultivation of spring barley of Suzdalets variety. The soil of the experimental plot is dark gray forest medium loamy soil with humus content of 2.43%. The barley was grown in a 7-field grain fallow crop rotation, where barley was preceded by spring wheat. The composition of weeds was dominated by non-annualDicotyledoneae. The number of weeds in crops was 7.2 pcs/m2 less in case of plowing than in case of fine mulching. When tilling without soil overturning, the infestation with perennial root weeds increased by 1.8 times compared to plowing. Herbicides effectively reduced the infestation of crops for all tillage methods. The best results were obtained when crops were sprayed with Caliber (50 g/ha) + Trend (0.2 l/ha) herbicides - 95.9% reduction of weed infestation in case of plowing, 95.2% - in case of fine mulching. The highest barley yield in the experiment was in case of plowing and applying of Caliber (50 g/ha) + Trend (0.2 l/ha) herbicides - 4.99 t/ha. The weight of 1000 grains was also the highest in this variant. The replacement of plowing with soil protection tillage led to some decrease of spring barley yield. The length of the head, the number of grains per head, the grain weight from 1 head and the weight of 1000 grains were higher in the variants with application of herbicides, compared to the control. The calculation of economic efficiency showed that the most advantageous is barley cultivation with application of Caliber (50 g/ha) + Trend (0.2 l/ha) herbicides for weed control during the growing season, but with fine mulching tillage, since this type of tillage can reduce the cost of crop cultivation.