Productivity and Profitability of Irrigated Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) are Influenced by Irrigation Scheduling and Weed Management Approaches

In all wheat growing regions of the world, wWater constraint and weed infestation are the main biological obstacles to increased wheat productivityy. This study may assist to enhance recommendations for controlling weeds in wheat and act as a guide for Northern Indian irrigated wheat. Therefore, four irrigation levels and eight weed management practices in wheat were under-taken in a split-plot design in four replication. The treatments consisted of four irrigation timing viz., irrigation at CRI and active tillering stage (I1), irrigation at CRI + jointing + booting (I2), CRI + active tillering + booting + flowering stage (I3) and irrigation at CRI + jointing + booting + flowering + milking stage (I4) were laid out to main plots and weeding regimes viz., W1-weedy check, W2-two hand weeding at 20 and 40 DAS, W3-sulfosulfuron 25% WG (75 g ha−1 at 35 DAS), W4-pendimethalin 1000 g ha−1 (pre-emergence) fb clodinafop-propargyl 15% (400 g ha−1 at 35 DAS), W5-carfentrazone ethyl 20% + sulfosulfuron 25%WG (100 g ha−1 at 35 DAS), W6-halauxafen + penxasulam 23.5% (75 g ha−1 at 35 DAS), W7-halauxafen—methyl 1.21% w/w + fluroxypyr (80 g ha−1 at 35 DAS) and W8-clodinafop-propargyl 15% + metsulfuron methy l 1% (400 g ha−1 35 DAS) were allocated to subplots. After two years of study, it was observed that the application of irrigation at the crown root initiation (CRI) stage and tillering stage showed a lower density and weed biomass, leading to the highest WCE. Five irrigations at CRI + jointing + booting + flowering + milking stage resulted in the maximum yield attributes, yield and economic returns. Among the herbicides applied manely: sulfosulfuron 25%WG (75 g ha−1 at 35 DAS), pendimethalin 1000 g ha−1 (pre-emergence) fb clodinafop-propargyl 15% (400 g ha−1 at 35 DAS), carfentrazone ethyl 20% + sulfosulfuron 25%WG (100 g ha−1 at 35 DAS), halauxafen + penxasulam 23.5% (75 g ha−1 at 35 DAS), halauxafen—methyl 1.21% w/w + fluroxypyr (80 g ha−1 at 35 DAS) and clodinafop-propargyl 15% + metsulfuron methy l 1% (400 g ha−1 35 DAS); carfentrazone ethyl 20% + sulfosulfuron 25%WG at 100 g ha−1 at 35 DAS significantly reduced weed infestation and resulted in the highest yield and economic returns, followed by clodinafop-propagyl 15% + metsulfuron 1% 400 g ha−1 at 35 DAS. Therefore, this experiment supports to find-out the relationship between irrigation and weed management to enhance wheat yield.