Reduce herbicide use by combined application of cultivator and band spraying in sugar beet

In order to reduce herbicide utilization, a 3-year field experiment was carried out with integration of mechanical and chemical weed control methods; in mechanical method, three types of blades (curred- bed knife, square- turn knife and sweep) were used. Chemical control was done with Chloridazon (WP 80%) and Desmedipham (EC 15.7%) in two spraying sheme: Once band sparying with 2 L h-1 & twice band sparying with 1 L h-1 of herbicides with 10 days interval. Combinations of chemical and mechanical control treatments were compared with conventional control methods including hand hoeing and overall field spraying with 6 L h-1 of herbicides. The results indicated that the best method of weeds control was the combination of cultivation with square-turn knif and once band spraying with 2 L h-1 of herbicides. Generally, our results showed that band spraying and cultivation, can reduce herbicides usage about 66% that is important from economical and environmental point of views.