BEPLS Vol 8 [7] June 2019 99 | P age ©2019 AELS, INDIA Bulletin of Environment, Pharmacology and Life Sciences Bull. Env. Pharmacol. Life Sci., Vol 8 [7] June 2019: 99-103 ©2019 Academy for Environment and Life Sciences, India Online ISSN 2277-1808 Journal’s URL:http://www.bepls.com CODEN: BEPLAD Global Impact Factor 0.876 Universal Impact Factor 0.9804 NAAS Rating 4.95 ORIGINAL ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS Weed dynamics of Baby Corn (Zea mays L.) as influenced by different weed management practices under the temperate conditions of Kashmir valley Aijaz Nazir, Fayaz Ahmad Bahar, Zahida Rashid, Suhail Fayaz, Tauseef Ahmad Bhat, Owais Ahmad Khan, Mohd. Salim and Tanveer Ahmad Ahangar Department of Agronomy, SKUAST-Kashmir (190001), India Email : magreyaijaz357@gmail.com ABSTRACT A field experiment entitled weed dynamics of baby corn (Zea mays L.) as influenced by different weed management practices under the temperate conditions of Kashmir valley was conducted at Mountain Livestock Research Institute (MLRI), Manasbal, (SKUAST-K) during kharif2014. The experiment comprising of 11 treatments [Farmers practice (W1); Earthing up and weeding at 30 and 45 DAS (W2); Atrazine @ 1.5 kg a.iha -1 pre-emergence at 1 DAS (W3); atrazine @ 1.5 kg a.iha -1 early post-emergence at 10 DAS (W4); straw mulch (paddy straw) at 1DAS (W5); straw mulch (brown sarson) at 1DAS (W6); polyethylene mulch (black) at 1DAS (W7); polyethylene mulch (white) at 1DAS (W8); saw mulch at 1DAS (W9); weedy check (W10) and weed free (W11)] was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Significant variation in growth and yield was recorded among the various treatments tested. Weed management practices recorded marked variation in the different weed parameters. W11 recorded significantly lowest weed density, dry matter accumulation and weed index among all the treatments whereas, highest values of these parameters was recorded in the W10 treatment. Highest and lowest values of weed control efficiency were recorded in W11 and W10 treatments, respectively. The highest net profit (Rs. 91760) and B:Cratio (1.54) was recorded for the treatment W2 and was closely followed by treatment W3,whereas, the lowest net profit (Rs. 45802) and B:C ratio (0.44) was recorded for treatment W8. Key words: Weed, profit, baby corn, atrazine, management, kharif Received 29.04.2019 Revised 04.05.2019 Accepted 21.05. 2019 INTRODUCTION In India, maize (Zea mays L.) is grown on an area of 9.43 mha, with production and productivity of 24.35 mt and 2583 kg/ha, respectively (GOI, 2014). Maize has been classified in different types according to its use and/or starch content viz., Flour corn (Zea mays var. Amylacea) Popcorn (Zea mays var. Everta) Dent corn (Zea mays var. Indentata) Flint corn (Zea mays var. Indurata) Sweet corn (Zea mays var. Saccharata) Waxy corn (Zea mays var. Ceratina) Pod corn (Zea mays var. Tunicate) and Baby corn (Zea mays L.) [2]. Baby corn (Zea mays L.) refers to the whole, entirely edible cobs of immature corn harvested just before fertilization at 2-3 cm long silk emergence stage [2]. Baby corn is a delicious and nutritive vegetable and it is consumed as a natural food. It is very tasty, sweet and easy to consume because of its tenderness and sweetness with good nutritive value. Due to changing food preferences in Indian life style, the urban population is switching over to new food items; the ‘Baby corn' is a new addition to Indian foods. Being a short duration crop, it easily fits in an intensive cropping system and in addition to baby cob it provides delicious green fodder to cattle [3]. Weeds are perceived by the farming community as being the greatest cause of yield loss in maize crop. They create a severe crop weed competition and are competing for light, water, nutrients, space, carbon dioxide etc. and increasing the cost of production. Yield losses in the range of 50-60% occur owing to absence of appropriateness, untimely and uncontrolled weed growth in maize fields and therefore needing immediate attention. Manual weeding though very effective in controlling weeds, very often is cumbersome, labour intensive, expensive and time consuming [9]. The use of atrazine herbicide has yielded encouraging results in maize at national and international level. How this herbicide behaves with