Rozafa Fetahaj1, Arben Mehmeti1, Aldi Hoxha1, Marigona Morina-Gashi2 and Zvonko Pacanoski3
1 University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina”, Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary, Department of Plant Protection, 10000 Pristina, Republic of Kosovo
2 Justus Liebig University Giessen, Institute of Soil Science and Soil Conservation, Research Centre for BioSystems, Land Use and Nutrition, Giessen, Germany
3 Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Faculty for Agricultural Sciences and Food, Department of Plant Production, Skopje, R. North Macedonia
Fetahaj. R., Mehmeti, A., Hoxha, A., Morina-Gashi, M. & Pacanoski, Z. (2026). Evaluation of pre and post-emergence herbicides for weed control in potato crop. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 32(3), 638–644
The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of herbicides for weed control in potato crops in the Gjakova region of Kosovo. The experiment is set up using a randomized block system with four repetitions. There were a total of six treatments in the experiment: pendimethalin as a pre-emergence herbicide applied at two different doses, metribuzin applied both pre-emergence and post-emergence with fluazifop-p-butyl, a treatment with mechanical intervention, and a control treatment. A total of 18 weed species were documented, in the control plots dominant weed species were: Trifolium repens L.with 18.8 plants/m2, Echinochloa crus-galli L.17.5 plants/m2, Plantago lanceolata L.15.0 plants/m2, and Lotus corniculatus L.with 7.3 plants/m2. The morphological composition of weeds was characterized by 13 dicotyledons and 5 monocotyledons. The biological composition of weeds was predominantly characterized by therophytes at 55.6%, hemicryptophytes at 30.5%, geophytes at 11.2%, and chamaephytes with a minor representation of 2.7%. The results indicate that herbicides have effectively reduced both the number of weeds, as well as the weed dry biomass, which has consequently affected potato yields. The most efficient herbicide for reducing weed species was metribuzin, a pre-emergence herbicide, with a 92.5% efficiency, while pendimethalin, a pre-emergence herbicide at a 6.0 l/ha dose, had an efficiency of 80.4%. The highest potato yield was achieved in the plots where metribuzin pre-emergence was applied, yielding 45.3 t/ha, and pendimethalin was applied at 6.0 l/ha, yielding 28.0 t/ha.