Allelopathic weed management in cotton involving botanical spray

Cotton, being a long duration, widely spaced and relatively slow growing crop during early growth stages is subjected to severe weed menace. Weed competition is severe during its initial growth stages. The increasing cost of manual weeding and unavailability of labour in time has forced to use herbicides for weed control in cotton. Indiscriminate use of herbicides has resulted in serious ecological implications and environmental pollution finally leads to health hazards. Recently, research attention has been focused on to find out alternative strategies for chemical weed control in cotton. Due to the negative impacts of certain pre-emergence herbicides, alternative methods of weed control are needed which will result in similar or higher crop productivity and provide the same or greater level of weed control. Hence, intensive scientific research on weed control with plant extracts combined with other weed management practices will be needed for the future generation.