Effect of weed control on growth, dry-matter production and partitioning in elephant-foot yam [Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.) Nicolson]

A field experiment was conducted to find out the effect of weed control on growth, dry-matter production and partitioning in elephant-foot yam [Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.) Nicolson] during 2016 and 2017 at the Regional Centre, ICAR-CTCRI, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The treatments consisted of combinations of herbicides (pre- and post-emergence), hand-weeding and weed control ground cover (WCGC) along with the control (weedy check). The treatments WCGC, 4 hand-weeding at 30, 60, 90 and 120 DAP and 2 hand-weeding at 30 and 60 DAP+glyphosate (at 90 DAP) resulted in higher plant height, canopy spread, pseudostem diameter, dry-matter accumulation in shoot, corm, root and total. Higher corm length, corm diameter and corm yield were noticed in treatments WCGC, 4 hand-weeding at 30, 60, 90 and 120 DAP and 2 hand-weeding at 30 and 60 DAP+glyphosate (at 90 DAP). The treatment control (weedy check) resulted in lower growth attributes, yield attributes and corm yield. The treatments WCGC, 4 hand-weeding at 30, 60, 90 and 120 DAP and 2 hand-weeding at 30 and 60 DAP+glyphosate (at 90 DAP) resulted in higher dry-matter and starch, and lower calcium oxalate content in corms. The treatment control (weedy check) resulted in lower dry-matter and starch, and higher calcium oxalate content in corms.