Abstract

A greenhouse trial was performed to investigate whether mixtures of barley cultivars could suppress weeds better than barley grown in pure stands, and whether the weed suppressive effect differed between the mixtures. Three barley cultivars (Hydrogen, Henni, Thetford) were grown as pure lines, all possible two-cultivar blends and one three-cultivar blend. The barley cultivars chosen were selected because they differ in three specific characteristics, namely allelopathic activity, root length development and shoot length in the first growth stages. Two weed species, Brassica rapa cv. Agat and Lolium perenne cv. Helmer, were chosen as the model weed flora. The experiment was run until the barley cultivars reached the beginning of the ear emergence stage. The results indicate that the competitive effect on weed flora biomass was dependent on the composition of the barley cultivar mixture. There was also a tendency for mixtures to have a better competitive effect on weeds than pure stands of barley cultivars, but this depended on the cultivars contained in the mixture. Contrasting allelopathic activity and shoot development characteristics in the mixture increased the competitive effect. The weed suppressive effect differed between mixtures and was lowest in the mixture with differing root development but low shoot development and high allelopathic activity

Keywords

cultivar mixtures; weed competition; barley cultivars

Published in

ISBN: 2-9515855-7-8
Publisher: ITAB, Paris, France

Conference

COST SUSVAR workshop on Cereal crop diversity: implications for production and products

Authors' information