~ 439 ~ The Pharma Innovation Journal 2021; 10(1): 439-442 ISSN (E): 2277- 7695 ISSN (P): 2349-8242 NAAS Rating: 5.03 TPI 2021; 10(1): 439-442 © 2021 TPI www.thepharmajournal.com Received: 30-10-2020 Accepted: 28-12-2020 VP Bhalerao Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, College of Agriculture, Dhule, Maharashtra, India RK Rathod Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, College of Agriculture, Dhule, Maharashtra, India PB Margal Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, College of Agriculture, Dhule, Maharashtra, India KM Doiphode Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, College of Agriculture, Dhule, Maharashtra, India BM Kamble Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, College of Agriculture, Dhule, Maharashtra, India Corresponding Author: VP Bhalerao Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, College of Agriculture, Dhule, Maharashtra, India Nutrient uptake as influenced by pre and post emergence herbicide in sweet corn grown in vertisols VP Bhalerao, RK Rathod, PB Margal, KM Doiphode and BM Kamble Abstract Field experiment was conducted at Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Dhule during Kharif 2019 to study the effect of pre and post emergence herbicides viz., atrazine, halosulfuron methyl, 2-4-D ethyl ester, pendimethalin and tembotrione on nutrient uptake by sweet corn. The weed free treatment (T2) with two hand weeding recorded significantly higher total N, P and K uptake of 253.16, 84.36 and 259.13 kg ha -1 , respectively, by sweet corn. However, significantly lower total N, P and uptake of 104.60, 31.98 and 109.94 kg ha -1 , respectively, by sweet corn was recorded in the treatment of weedy check (T1). Among the treatments of pre and post emergence herbicides, application of pendimethalin @ 1000 g ha -1 as pre emergence fb tembotrione @ 120 g ha -1 as post emergence (T6) recorded higher total N uptake (230.22 kg ha -1 ), P uptake (72.37 kg ha -1 ) and K uptake (240.85 kg ha -1 ) by sweet corn with 120, 126.29 and 119.07 % increase, respectively, over the treatment of weedy check (T1) and 9.06, 14.21 and 7.05 % decrease, respectively, over the Weed free (T2) treatment (Two hand weeding). Keywords: N uptake, P uptake and K uptake Introduction Sweet corn (Zea mays L. saccharata) is becoming increasingly popular in India and other Asian countries. Sweet corn being heavy feeder requires heavy dose of chemical fertilizers. All plants require 17 essential nutrients for their growth and development and under normal growing conditions, absorb them from the soil solution through their roots. The fate of absorbed nutrients is very important aspect of soil fertility and nutrient management, crop nutrition, determination of produce quality, nutrient balance and nutrient use efficiency (Tandon and Muralidhrudu 2010) [3] . The nutritive value and quality of sweet corn depend upon genetic, climatic, biotic, edaphic, chemical and other factors as well as combinations of these factors. Some ecological, cultural and physical factors including fertilizer management have significant influence on the chemical and nutritional composition of plants as well as their anatomical and morphological structure (Salunkhe and Kadan 2005) [2] . Weed infestation is one of the major constraints for low yield of sweet corn as weeds compete with crop plants for light, space and nutrients. It is reported that severe weed competition results in 30-100 % yield reduction (Dey et al. 2017) [7] . Manual weeding is often difficult due to inadequate supply of labour in proper time, higher cost and non-workable condition of the labour (Rana et al., 2013) [1] . In such situation, use of herbicides is an obvious choice. With this background, the present investigation was carried out with a view to understand the effect of herbicides viz., atrazine, halosulfuron methyl, 2-4-D ethyl ester, pendimethalin and tembotrione on N,P and K uptake by sweet corn for their judicious use. Material and Methods Field experiment was conducted at Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Dhule during Kharif 2019 to study the effect of pre and post emergence herbicides on soil enzymes in sweet corn. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with ten treatments replicated three times. Treatments composed of T 1 : weedy check, T 2 : weed free (two hand weeding), T 3 : atrazine @ 1000 g ha -1 (PE) fb halosulfuron methyl @ 90 g ha -1 (PoE), T 4 : atrazine @ 1000 g ha -1 (PE) fb 2,4 D ethyl ester @ 1000 g ha -1 (PoE), T 5 : pendimethalin @ 1000 g ha -1 (PE) fb halosulfuron-methyl @ 90 g ha -1 (PoE), T 6 : pendimethalin @ 1000 g ha -1 (PE) fb tembotrione @ 120 g ha -1 (PoE), T 7 : pendimethalin @ 1000 g ha -1 (PE) fb 2,4 D ethyl ester @ 1000 g ha -1 (PoE), T 8 : halosulfuron-methyl @ 90 g ha -1 (PoE), T 9 : tembotrione @ 120 g ha -1 (PoE) and T 10 : 2,4 D ethyl ester @ 1000 g ha -1 (PoE).