Mulching and herbicides in peach: Weed biomass, fruit yield, size, and quality

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of mulches and herbicides on weed population, fruit yield, and quality in peach cv. 'Earli Grande.' Covering soil with black polythene mulch (100 mu m) resulted in 100% control of weeds at six weeks after treatment (WAT) during both the years of study. However, guinea grass, which had emerged out of the black polythene mulch, reduced the weed control efficiencies (WCE) to 96.3 and 98.5% in 2009 and 2010, respectively, at 12 WAT. Application of straw mulch (8 cm, 15.5 t ha(-1)) resulted in higher weed control efficiencies at 6 WAT during 2009 and 2010 (98.4 and 98.2%, respectively). At 12 WAT, this decreased to 90.7 and 93.1% in 2009 and 2010, respectively, due to the emergence of bermuda grass and guinea grass from the mulch. The weed control efficiencies with treatments having diuron as pre-emergence herbicide did not differ significantly from black polythene at 6 WAT. Atrazine and pendimethalin were the next most efficient and did not differ significantly from each other. At 12 WAT, diuron followed by fb glyphosate resulted in higher WCE, and it did not differ significantly from atrazine fb glyphosate. In both years, highest fruit yield (69.3 and 67.9 kg tree(-1), respectively) was recorded with straw mulch (8 cm). Straw mulch (8 cm) also resulted in a 20 and 19% increase in fruit weight (81.9 and 81.4 g during 2009 and 2010, respectively) over manual weeding. Straw mulch (8 cm) did not differ significantly from straw mulch (6 cm), black polythene mulch, and diuron treatments for fruit yield during both years. Conclusively, plastic and straw mulches can be used as an effective chemical-free alternative to manual or chemical weed control in peach.