Role of Herbicides and Hoeing in the Growth, Yield, and Weed Management of Tow hybrid maize cultivars (Zea mays L.)

• Shaymaa Nadheer Basheer Mohammed Akram Abdulateef

  Author

This experiment was conducted during the 2025 growing season to evaluate the effects of mechanical and chemical weed control methods on weed species accompanying a maize (Zea mays L.) crop in the eastern districts of Mosul city, across both the spring and autumn growing seasons. The experiment was laid out as a randomized complete block design (RCBD) in a two-factor factorial arrangement. The first factor comprised two imported hybrid maize cultivars, were Zp6120 and pioneer 900  while the second factor consisted of eight weed management treatments: three concentrations of the herbicide Burbon applied alone, manual hoeing applied alone or in combination with each herbicide concentration, and an untreated check (no herbicide). The traits assessed included total weed count, total weed dry weight, flag leaf area, number of kernels per row, number of kernels per ear, biological yield, grain yield per unit area, and harvest index.

The main findings were as follows. Treatment T6 (hoeing combined with the above-recommended herbicide rate) produced the lowest total weed count and total weed dry weight in both seasons, as well as the highest values for kernels per row, kernels per ear, and grain yield per unit area in the autumn season; T6 and T5 were superior for grain yield in the spring season. Treatments T3, T4, and T5 recorded the highest biological yield in the spring season, whereas all treatments outperformed the check for biological yield in the autumn. All weed management treatments surpassed the untreated check for flag leaf area in both seasons. For harvest index, all treatments performed better than the check in spring, while T8 showed the highest harvest index in autumn. At the cultivar level, no significant difference was detected between the two cultivars for total weed count, kernels per row, or harvest index; cultivar Zb6120 was superior for biological yield and grain yield in both seasons, as well as total weed dry weight and kernels per ear in autumn. Pioneer (900) produced higher values for harvest index and kernels per ear in the spring season. These results indicate that combining hoeing with the recommended or above-recommended herbicide rate maximises weed suppression efficiency and crop productivity.

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