Herbicidal Effects of Chenopodium murale and Coronopus didymus Sm. Residues Against Germination and Early Growth of Hordeum vulgare

This study reports the common problems of weed species that adversely affect the crop productivity of the agriculture crops at a large scale. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of dried application of Chenopodium murale and Coronopus didymus on seed germination and early growth of Hordeum vulgare. The experiment was performed in a randomised block design with three replications under the greenhouse condition in pot culture. Shoots and roots materials were separately dried in shade for 15–20 days, dry powdered shoot and root residues of C. murale and C. didymus were applied at 5 and 10g kg-1 doses to barley seeds in 6” pots with control for three weeks. C. didymus (10g) shoot residues were most inhibitive against germination (31.16%), GVI (0.85), SVI (4.90) and leaf area (3.94 cm2) of barley while 5 g root residues of the weed had least pronounced effect. Root length, shoot length, and dry biomass were most inhibited by C. murale 10 g in both shoot and root residue treatments. Shoot residues were more inhibitive of germination and growth than root residues of both weeds. Chlorophyll accumulation patterns showed mixed results with some treatments even stimulating their concentrations. Root treatments were in general more inhibitive than shoot treatments. All treated seedlings exhibited higher levels of proline accumulation compared to control. At lower dose, C. murale treatments were more inhibitive than C. didymus treatments. There is a great scope of research on these species to isolate and identify the active factors and also to understand their implication in the biocontrol of weeds apart from their potential negative effects on agricultural crops, especially cereal crops, which can be useful to increasing crop production in northern India, namely in Uttar Pradesh