Effect of mulching and pre-emergence herbicides on production of kiwifruit cuttings

A field experiment was conducted at the experimental farm of Department of Seed Science and Technology, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, Himachal Pradesh during 2019-20 to see the effect of mulching and pre-emergence herbicides on production of kiwifruit cuttings laid out in randomised block design. Three mulching treatments viz black polythene mulch, grass mulch and crop residue; four pre-emergence herbicides treatments viz oxyfluorfen (1.0 and 0.5 ai kg/ha), pendimethalin (1.0 and 0.5 0.5 ai kg/ha) and control (hand weeding – once a month) were used as soil treatments. Black polythene mulch significantly increased the sprouting (83.67%), shoot length (123.03 cm), shoot diameter (5.29 mm), number of leaves per cutting (20.17), leaf area (86.60 cm²), fresh and dry weight of shoots (24.71 and 14.47 g respectively), rooting (47.96%), number of roots per cutting (29.17), fresh and dry weight of roots (25.23 and 12.13 g respectively), total biomass (26.59 g), survival rate (54.47%) and saleable plants (39.27%) in hardwood cuttings of kiwifruit. At the same time, minimum number of weeds at 30, 60, 90 and 120 days after treatment was also observed under black polythene mulch. Hence the black polythene mulch was proved best among all the treatments for production of kiwifruit cuttings.