Gehu ka Sehu or Gehu ka Mama: Characteristics and Idendentification

Gehu Ka Sehu– What is Gehu ka sehu? गेहूँ का सेहु क्या है? Weeds of Wheat. गेहूँ के खरपतवार.

INDEX

S. NO.	HEADINGS/SUBHEADINGS
1.	Introduction: Gehu Ka Sehu
2.	Characteristics
3.	Identification
4.	Importance
5.	Control
6.	Frequently Asked Questions

1. Introduction: Gehu Ka Sehu

NAME	Gehu ka Sehu (गेहूँ का सेहुँ)
OTHER NAMES	Gehu ka mama (गेहूँ का मामा), gulli danda (गुल्ली डंडा), sitti buti or sittee booti
ENGLISH NAME	Small canary grass
SCIENTIFIC NAME	Phalaris minor
FAMILY	Grass family, Gramineae
TYPE	Plant (grass family), weed, annual.
OCCURRENCE	Wheat field, winter season
AGRICULTURAL STATUS	Weed

2. Characteristics

Adaptable to local environment: It can easily adopt and utilise the same environment where wheat is grown.

Hardy: It is more hardy in nature than the main crop.

Resistant to….: It is restaurant to many insect-pests and act as host of insect-pests of wheat. It can also resist fire.

Tufted: The main characteristic of the grass is that it is a tuft.

3. Identification

See difference between Phalaris minor and wheat to identify the weed..

Phalaris minor	Wheat
Tufted	Not tufted
Bunchy appearance	Tillers can be differentiate easily.
It can grow more than 5 feet	Average height is less than 4 feet.
Number of seed is very much.	Number of seed is very less than the werd.
Test weight of seed is few grams. It us 2 g.	Test weight of wheat is more. It is 40 g.
Tillers form buch.	Tillers doesn’t form bunch.
Leaves are light in colour.	Leaves are darker in colour.

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3.1 Appearance

It appears as a tuft or bunch. Although, it resembles closely to wheat.

3.2 Life Cycle

(1). Seeds of phalaris minor are mixed with the seeds of wheat during harvesting.

(2). Seeds of phalaris minor went through all postharvest activities along with seeds with wheat.

(3). The contaminated seeds are stored in warehouses.

(5). The life cycle of phalaris minor continues.

(4). At the time of sowing the already contaminated seeds are sown in the same or other field and,

4. Importance

Competition with crop: It is a tough competitor of main crop. Main crop has to compete for all resources available in soil.

Seed contamination: Seeds of wheat are contaminated by the weed. Market value of these seeds is low.

Less production: Overall production is heavily reduced. It is an very important economical loss.

The weed is of economic importance. It can be termed as the serious weed of wheat. Yearly loss due to the unwanted species of weed is significant.

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5. Control

(a). Chemical Control– Isoproturon.

(b). Hand Wedding.

Spraying isoproturon– Spray isoproturon @800 g/ha three days after seed sowing and do one hand weeding (ref 01).

Hand Weeding– Two hand weeding- first is after 25 DAS and second is after 35 DAS (fer 02)}

6. Frequently Asked Questions

Question 01. How to avoid mixing seeds of phaliris minor with the seeds of wheat?

Answer: It can done in following ways:

(a). Destroying weeds: Weeds should be removed from the field during its vegetative stage.

(b). Weed removal can be done in two ways:

Chemical e.g., Isoproturon.
Cultural e.g., hand weeding. Regular hand weeding requires identification of the weed species.

However, it can’t be removed completely.

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Question 02. Can we fed it to farm animals?

Answer: Yes, but the nutritive values are less known.

Question 03. Why is it difficult to remove this weed completely from the field of wheat?

Answer: The persistent nature, like to like replacement of wheat plants etc. are the major causes.

Question 04. What are the other possible causes of spread of phalaris minor?

Answer: Other possible causes are as follows:

Wind.
Farm animals.
Wild animals.
Birds.
Human.
Farm machines.

-BY SHASYADHARA AGRICULTURE

REFERENCES

01 and 02. Crop Management: Wheat. Crop Management: After Cultivation – Weed Management.