International Journal of Plant & Soil Science

Tank mixing of agrochemicals is a common practice among farmers in order to save time and labour cost involved in crop protection. An experiment was conducted from July to November 2022 at Kerala Agricultural University to study the compatibility of tank mixing micronutrient formulation (Sampoorna KAU multimix) with post emergence herbicides for rice. The design was Randomized Block Design with thirteen treatments replicated thrice. The treatments were bispyribac sodium 0.03 kg/ ha + Sampoorna (T₁), cyhalofop butyl+ penoxsulam (premix) 0.15 kg/ ha + Sampoorna (T₂), 2,4-D Na salt 0.8 kg/ ha + Sampoorna (T₃), metsulfuron methyl + chlorimuron ethyl (premix) 0.004 kg/ ha + Sampoorna (T₄), cyhalofop butyl 0.08 kg/ ha + Sampoorna (T₅), bispyribac sodium 0.03 kg/ ha (T₆), cyhalofop butyl+ penoxsulam (premix) 0.15 kg/ ha (T₇), 2,4-D Na salt 0.8 kg/ ha (T₈), metsulfuron methyl+ chlorimuron ethyl (premix) 0.004 kg/ ha (T₉), cyhalofop butyl 0.08kg/ ha (T₁₀), hand weeding at 20 & 40 DAT (days after transplanting)+ Sampoorna (T₁₁) , hand weeding at 20 & 40 DAT (without Sampoorna) (T₁₂) and unweeded check (T₁₃). Sole application of herbicides and respective tank mix application with micronutrient formulation were carried out at 20 days after transplanting. Tank mix application of 2,4-D with Sampoorna resulted in severe crop phytotoxicity and registered significantly lower chlorophyll content at panicle initiation stage. The lower plant height, tiller number, productive tillers and yield were registered in tank mix application of 2,4-D or metsulfuron methyl+ chlorimuron ethyl (premix) with micronutrient formulation. Tank mixing of bispyribac sodium, cyhalofop butyl and cyhalofop butyl+ penoxsulam (premix) were found to be compatible with micronutrient formulation, and registered comparable weed control efficiency and grain yield to that of their sole application.