HERBICIDE SCREENING FOR ECONOMIC PRODUCTION OF SNAP BEANS IN THE SUDAN

Screening of different herbicides for weed control, yield and quality in snap beans has started in Khartoum-North in 1978 and was continued annually till 1982. The screening process involved elimination of the poorly performing chemicals, addition of newly introduced ones to the next season experiment and continuation of the testing of the promising ones. The herbicides Eptam, Preforan, Basagran, Treflan and Tribunil were compared with hand weeding and the weedy check. The herbicide Basagran gave the highest yield and the least number of weeds per square meter of all tested herbicides. Treflan resulted in the lowest yield and highest weed population. The herbicide Tribunil was eliminated after the 2nd season because of crop phytotoxicity. Preforan seems to be promising for future testing. Hand weeding resulted in the highest yield of all the weed control treatments probably because it improved the soil physical condition but definitely it was not economical with the presently rising cost of labour.

Though statistically nonsignificant Treflan resulted in an increase in protein content of pods.