Ngày nhận bài: 10-08-2014 / Ngày duyệt đăng: 21-04-2015
Theaim of our study was to investigate interactiveeffects of maize-soybean intercropping and hand weeding on the growth of weeds. The field experiments were laid out in asplit-plot design with three replications. The main plots werethree weedingregimes: No-weeding (NW), hand-weeding once at 3-4 leaf stage of maize (HW1) andhand-weeding twice at 3-4 leaf and 8-9 leaf stages of maize(HW2). The sub-plots weredifferent intercropping patterns: Mo (sole maize), M1 (maize + 1 soybean row in the inter-row of maize), M2 (maize + soybean grown in the same row with maize) in spring-summer season.In winter season, M2 was replaced byM3 (maize + 2 soybeanrowsintheinter-row of maize). Weed density and biomass were determined within three random quadrats (0.25 m2) per plot at three growing stages of maize: 3-4 leaf stage (S1), 8-9 leaf stage (S2) and 13-14 leaf stage (S3).The results showed that the intercropping and hand weeding sharplysuppressed weed growth. In the experiments, goosegrass (Eleusineindica)was the most prevalent weedwith ahigher density and a dry matter; however,its growth wasstrongly reduced by maize-soybean intercropping and hand weeding.Double hand-weedingsignificantlyreducedweed density and biomass compared with singlehand weeding. Even though intercropping positively suppressed weed growth, the study confirmed the importance of hand weeding in weed control efficiency. Our results suggested thatundercultivation condition without herbicide usage,maize-soybean intercroppingshould be combinedwith 2hand-weeding.