Weed control
Weeds affect crop growth and yield in a variety of ways. They compete with the crop for space, water and nutrients. However in potato they are more serious because potato is a short duration crop and fast early growth is essential for high yield. Presence of weeds at early stages will slow down early growth due to competition for space, water and nutrients while presence of weeds at harvest would make it difficult to expose the tubers thus increasing the cost of harvesting as well as cumbersome. Weeds also harbour vectors of potato pests and diseases which makes pest and disease control difficult unless weeds are controlled. Weed control traditionally is done through cultural methods in potato. However, in some situations chemical weed control is advantageous while in some other situation a combination of the two i.e. integrated weed control is desirable. For an effective weed control strategy, the weeding operation should be properly timed as well as the cropping system i.e. crop sequence or intercropping system should also be borne in mind.