CRITICAL PERIOD OF WEED CONTROL AT DIFFERENT GROWTH STAGE IN COWPEA (Vigna unguiculata L.) PRODUCTION IN MINNA, NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA

Abstract

Field trial was conducted to study the critical period of weed control at different growth stage in cowpea at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Federal University of Technology, Minna (latitude 90 371 N and longitude 60 331 E) located in the Southern Guinea Savanna ecological zone of Nigeria during 2019 wet season. The experiments consisted of eight treatments which are weeding at second, fourth and sixth trifoliate, weeding at first flowering, podding, seeding, weed-free and weedy plot laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) and replicated three times Results showed that weed dry weight was significantly ( p<0.05) lower on weed-free plot and weeding at second trifoliate, cowpea 4plant height was higher on weed-free plot, weeding at second and fourth trifoliate, higher number of cowpea pod on weed-free plot and weeding at sixth trifoliate and higher grain yield on weed-free plot and weeding at sixth trifoliate. The practical implication of this study is that weed-free plot throughout growth stages gave better growth and yield performance of cowpea.