The investigation of flame cultivation for weed control on cotton field and comparison with conventional control methods

Weed control is an expensive practice in the production of agricultural crops which can be directly effective in the final price of food materials .Now a days there is a great deal of concern which had led farmers to use weed control methods that are cost effective and in agreement with environmental protective protocols. Therefore it is essential to evaluate the possibility to substitute traditional methods with cost effective and environmental protective procedures. Field experiment was conducted in 8 treatment and four replications. The treatments were following: 1- Treflan(trifluralin 48%Ec) herbicide at the rate of 2.5 L/ha.2- Treflan+ hoeing at eight week after sowing 3- Treflan + flamer at the stage of 40 cm height of plant. 4- Flamer at the stage of 20-25 cm height of plant height. 5- + flamer at the stage of 40 cm height of plant 6- Flamer twice at the 20 and 40 cm plant height.7-hoeing on all vegetation period. 8- Without any weed control. The result indicated that Treflan+ once hoeing at 8th weeks and the application of flamer twice at the 20cm and 40 cm height of plant with 85.3 and 82.9 percent control of weeds were the best respectively and these treatments haven't significant differences. the hoeing on all vegetation period treatment with 4400 kg/ha was in first class and after the two treatments of treflan + once hoeing at 8th weeks and the treatment of treflan + flamer application at 40 cm heights of plant were 4250 and 3650 kg/ha respectively at second class. The results indicated that the damages from flamer on plants at the stage of 40 cm height compensate in later stage of plant growth but the damages didn't compensate at the stages of20 cm height and this caused the reduction of leaf area and yield. Economic assessment showed that the following treatments including the utilization of treflan herbicide in companion with weeding, treflan+ flamer at the stage of 40 cm height of plant and flamer at the stage of 40 cm height of plant resulted to more impure efficiency in comparison to weeding application in whole period of plant growth. In conclusion it can be said that the above - mentioned methods had the higher economical superiority in comparison with traditional ones.