Original Article Study Concerning the Herbicidation Efficacy on Weed Biomass in Maize Crops POP Horia Alexandru, Teodor RUSU * , Ileana BOGDAN University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, 3-5, Calea Mănăştur, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania Received 14 January 2018; received and revised form 2 February 2018; accepted 10 February 2018 Available online 30 March 2018 Abstract The maize is one of the most valuable nutritional sources for both man and animals. This study was conducted in order to emphasize the herbicidation efficacy on weed biomass in maize crops cultivated at the Reasearch development Station Turda, Cluj County, Romania, using different herbicidation products. The experiment was carried out between 2015 and 2016, and 8 experimental variants wer used. Concerning fresh biomass, our study shows that the means range from 327.26 kg/Ha, reported in untreated control, and 53.36 kg/Ha, reported for Variant 6, where herbicidation was performed with Titus Plus + Principal + Trend, where best results were obtained. In dry biomass, the largest mean dry weed biomass of 271.59 kg/Ha was also recorded in control Variant 1, and the lowest in Variant 5, where where herbicidation was performed with Principal Plus + Trend. Keywords: biomass, herbicidation, significance, treatment, weed management. 1. Introduction Besides wheat and rice, maize is one of the most valuable nutritional sources for both man and animals. In developed countries, maize is mainly consumed as a by- product in the form of meat, eggs and dairy products [1]. In developing countries, maize is consumed directly and serves as a nutritional base for approximately 200 million people. Maize culture requires 450 mm, up to 600 mm of water per season, which is mainly taken from the soil's back-up moisture [4, 11]. Weeds are a limiting factor for high crop production in cereals in general and maize in particular. For this reason it is necessary to manage the weeds in such a way as to ensure their occurrence up to levels below the allowed thresholds. The decline in maize grain yields is usually linked to a low degree of field enrichment [7, 2]. * Corresponding author. Tel: +40-262-596384 Fax: +40-264-593792 e-mail: teodor.rusu@usamvcluj.ro Weeds are strong competitors for the resources needed for developing crops with regard to the main nutritional resources and usually the result of competitive interactions between crops and weeds is in favor of the latter. For example, competition for nutritional resources between maize and weeds is the main reason for growing maize at reduced distances between rows or in equidistant rows [3, 6, 10]. The strategy for weed control, in the integrated management approach, must include both strategic factors, which concern a long period of time and regard aspects related to the management of the vegetal farm (organization, practice of crops, soil cultivation systems, specific crops/crops, etc.), as well as specific short-time, tactical and very short time-related factors related to a vegetation season, operational factors, respectively [5, 8]. This study was conducted in order to emphasize the herbicidation efficacy on weed biomass in maize crops cultivated at the Reasearch development Station Turda, Cluj County, Romania, using different herbicidation products. Available online at http://journals.usamvcluj.ro/index.php/promediu ProEnvironment ProEnvironment 11 (2018) 7 - 12 7 brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk