DOI 10.36461/NP.2024.69.1.004
UDC 633.853.483+632.5

THE INFLUENCE OF THE SEEDING RATE ON WEED INFESTATION OF BROWN MUSTARD AGROCENOSES
V.A. Gushchina, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, Professor, Yu.A. Prokhorova, postgraduate student
Penza State Agrarian University, Penza, Russia, tel. (8412) 628-367, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

It is necessary to assess weed infestation of crops in order to use arable land rationally, since the presence of weed cenosis is one of the main reasons that reduce yields. One of the controlling factors of agrocenosis weed infestation is the seeding rate, which affects the number of plants per unit area. Among cole crops, brown mustard is the one that greatly requires purity of fields, especially in the initial growth stages. It is very relevant to evaluate the parameters of stem density individually for each variety. Therefore, the aim of the research is to determine the optimal seeding rate, at which the studied varieties of brown mustard are able to actively suppress weeds without reducing the overall productivity of crops. The experimental work was carried out on the meadow-chernozem soil of the collection site of the Penza State Agrarian University. The weed infestation of mustard during the full sprouting stage varied over the years of research and this is due to an increase in moisture. With HTC 3.1 in 2022, regardless of the seeding rate and variety, the number of weeds amounted to 58 pcs/m2 with a mass of 38.5 g/m2. In the second year of research, with HTC 1.5, the number of weed decreased by 12.5 pcs/m2, and their mass by 17 g/m2. On average, over two years, the total number of weed for harvesting decreased to 32.2 pcs/m2 against 51.8 pcs/m2 in the stage of 3-4 mustard leaves, that is, in quantitative terms, weed infestation decreased by 38%, and in weight equivalent increased by 2.4 times, because the mass of the weed component by the end of the growing season was 78.3 g/m2, since common purslane appeared in the agrocenosis. Mustard varieties had no effect on weed suppression, but their number for harvesting decreased from 44.0 to 22.0 pcs/m2 with an increase in the seeding rate from 1.0 to 3.0 million germinating seeds per hectare.
Keywords: weed infestation, brown mustard (Brassica juncea L.), seeding rate, variety, weed mass, hydrothermal coefficient.

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