MORPHOLOGICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE OF MAIZE TO SOME ALLELOPATHIC PLANT EXTRACTS

An experiment was conducted to investigate the allelopathic response of different plant extracts on the morpho-physiological traits of maize crop. The experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design having three repetitions. Water extracts of ten different plants viz., neem (Azadirachta indica L.), eucalyptus (Eucalyptus camaldulensis L.), tobacco (Nicotiana tobacum L.), Indian lilac (Melia azadirach L.), acacia (Acacia nilotica L.), poplar (Populous deltoids L.), sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.), jaman (Syzygium cumini L.) and karir (Capparis decidua L.) were used in this study along with distilled water (control). Tobacco and sunflower extracts were prepared by grinding the mature harvested dry leaves while other plant extracts were prepared by grinding the mature harvested dry stem peel and their 20% concentrated extracts were obtained. The extracts were applied after preparation of 72 hours and were used as per requirement of plants till 30 days. The data recorded after 15 and 30 days after sowing exhibited that all the studied parameters were negatively influenced by the application of neem, eucalyptus and tobacco aqueous extracts which means that maize plants showed poor morpho-physiological growth response against these solutions. Least allelopathic response was noted by the application of jaman and karir extract after control. Further studies are suggested to isolate the allelopathins from the neem and eucalyptus further studies and their use as herbicides for the sustainability of agroeosystems.