Investigation of the effects of flaming and mechanical control methods, which are alternative to herbicides, on weed control at sunflower

This study was carried out to determine the effect of flaming and hand hoeing on weeds in sunflower. The field trial was established in the research field of the Faculty of Agriculture at Inonu University in 2017. The treatment subjects consist of weedy season-long, weed-free control and different combinations of broadcast flaming and mechanical cultivation (inter-row). The experiment was established according to the randomized block design. When sunflower was 2-4 leaves (V2-V4), flaming application was carried out once and propane dose was adjusted as 60 kg / ha. The mechanical application was applied once in 2-4 leaf and 4-6 leaf periods, twice in 2-4 leaf and 10-12 leaf period with 4-6 leaves 10-12 leaf period. At the end of the experiment, besides the effects of sunflower applications on weeds, the head diameter, plant height, thousand-kernel weight and yield values of the sunflower were determined. The highest sunflower yield was obtained from weed-free control (588 kg/da), followed by twice cultivation application (579 kg/da). The lowest yield was obtained from weed free control plot (455 kg/da). The highest head diameter was obtained from the twice cultivation application plot (18.83 cm). In the plant height, the highest value was obtained twice cultivation (168.43 cm), followed by weed free control application (164.73 cm). It may be suggested that the application of cultivation in the weed control of the sunflower can increase the yield, thus may be used especially in organic agriculture. Keywords: Sunflower, flaming, weed control, cultivation