Integrated weeds control through seed priming, irrigation and nitrogen in wheat under saline conditions

Abstract Heavy weed infestations are reportedly dependent on flood irrigation and broadcast application of fertilizers. The main objectives of this study were to control weeds and save precious irrigation water by controlled irrigation, placement nitrogen fertilizer and seed priming in wheat. Experiments were conducted at three ecological zones of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan during 2017-19 with Randomized Complete Block design. Three levels of urea (46% N) with broadcast and placement demonstrated against three irrigations (Management Allowed Depletion Technique-MAD). Wheat seed priming was imposed to maintain uniformity of the experiments in terms of emergence and uniform stand establishment. Highest weeds infestations were correlated with broadcast 120 kg urea ha− 1 under 60% MAD irrigation. And lowest weeds were observed for placement 60 kg urea ha− 1 under 70% MAD irrigation. It was concluded that placement 90 kg urea ha− 1 with 70% MAD irrigation alongside with priming technique (hydro priming and osmo-priming with PEG) enhanced yield of wheat and increased water and nitrogen use efficiencies. These finding could be further utilized for developing computer simulated models for irrigation and fertilizers in wheat.