EFFECT OF SOWING DATES AND WEED CONTROL METHODS ON YIELD COMPONENTS OF SOYBEAN (Glycine max L. MERRILL)

Soybean is one of the most important legumes in the world. sowing date and weeds are considered as the major determinants of soybean yield. in order to study the influence of sowing date and weed control methods on the yield attributes of soybean cv. bari soybean-6, a field experiment was conducted during december, 2012 to june, 2013 at sher-e-bangla agricultural university, dhaka, bangladesh. the different sowing dates (18th december, 2nd january, 17th january and 1st february) and weeding methods (no weeding, two hand weeding, hand hoe weeding and chemical control by whip super 9 ec (fenoxaprop-p-ethyl: c18h16clno5)) showed significant effect on number of plants m^-2, number of pods plant^-1, pod length, number of seeds pod^-1, 1000-seed weight, stover yield, biological yield and harvest index of soybean. results revealed that sowing on 2 january gave the highest number of pods plant^-1, seeds pod^-1, 1000-seed weight, stover and biological yield (31.50, 1.93, 117.70 g, 2.74 and 4.91 t ha^-1, respectively). the weeds were effectively controlled by two hand weeding (20 and 40 das) which produced the maximum number of pods plant^-1, pod length, seeds pod^-1, stover and biological yield (32.75, 3.17 cm, 1.91, 2.74 t ha^-1 and 4.97 t ha^-1, respectively) which were statistically similar (30.92, 2.98 cm, 1.85, 2.63 t ha^-1 and 4.82 t ha^-1, respectively) with herbicide application. interaction effect showed that highest number of pods plant^-1, seeds pod^-1, 1000-seed weight, stover and biological yield (37.67, 2.00, 125.80 g, 3.10 and 5.60 t ha^-1, respectively) were obtained from 2 january sowing when the crop was weeded by hand at 20 and 40 das.