The productivity of corn crop is reduced by the interference of weeds. An experiment was conducted at Eldorado do Sul, RS/Brazil, in 1998-1999, to evaluate the efficacy of grass herbicides applied during preemergence on the control of Brachiaria plantaginea (BRAPL) in no-tilled corn.The corn hybrid was AG 5011 planted at 70.000 plants/ha. The treatments consisted of five herbicides with its two rates each (kg i. a.ha-1), as follows: acetochlor (3,0 and 4,0), metolachlor (2,5 and 3,0), trifluralin (3,0 and 4,0), pendimethalin (2,5 and 3,0) and isoxaflutole (0,06 and 0,07). The experiment al desing was a complet block with four replicates. It was assessed the weed control, the number of plants, BRAPL dry mass and corn grains yiel. Best weed control was obtained with isoxaflutole and at higher rates, the weed control increased. Corn yield was negatively related to BRAPL density and dry mass indicating that increasing BRAPL plants and mass reduced corn yield.
Weed; chemical control; Brachiaria plantaginea.H