Soil Weed Seed Bank under different Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) Management Systems

Author: D.V.S. Akshay, N.D. Parlawar, J.P. Deshmukh and A.S. Riar

Download PDF

Abstract

Cotton is a long duration, widely spaced, and relatively slow-growing crop that faces a serious weed threat in its early growth stages. The weeds growing in a crop can be considered as merely the vehicle by which seeds in the soil produce further seeds for incorporation into the soil seed bank. Due to the complexity of characterizing the soil seed bank, it is difficult to predict the abundance of weed species and communities. One way of describing weed soil seed bank is that they are primarily an assemblage of seeds that will occasionally germinate, emerge, and grow into adult plants. A pot culture experiment was conducted in the greenhouse located at Agronomy farm, Centre of Organic Agricultural Research and Training (COART), Department of Agronomy, Dr. PDKV, Akola during kharif season of the year 2020-21, to compare the weed seed bank and weed flora in the soil under organic, bio-dynamic, conventional management systems of Bt and non-Bt cotton (Gossypium hirsutum). The present investigation was carried out in completely randomized design with the soil collected from five different crop management practices done in the field, each replicated four times. The treatments were allotted randomly to various pots. The five treatments consist of Organic management soil of cotton, Bio-dynamic management soil of cotton, Conventional management soil of non-Bt cotton, Conventional management soil of Bt cotton, Absolute Control soil (without fertilizers). Panicum dichotomiflorum, Cyperus rotundus, Paspalum dilatatum, Euphorbia hirta, Acalypha indica and Digeria ravensis were the dominant weed species observed. Poaceae was the dominant family in terms of composition. Weed flora between the treatments was found to be having very minor differences. The weed seed bank, weed species, weed count and weed dry matter were found to be statistically non-significant, but numerically highest in the Organic and Biodynamic than in the Conventional treatments.

Keywords

Bio-dynamic, Bt, Conventional, Cotton, Organic, Weed

Conclusion

From the above findings, it can be concluded that weed flora was reported with very less difference between the treatments. Organic and Biodynamic soil was reported with higher weed seed bank, weed species diversity, weed count and weed dry matter than in the Conventional soil. The conventional management soil was found to be best as reported with very less seed bank. The Organic management soil weed seed bank was observed with high number of overall plant species and best in conserving the soil plant species biodiversity.

References

-

How to cite this article

D.V.S. Akshay, N.D. Parlawar, J.P. Deshmukh and A.S. Riar (2022). Soil Weed Seed Bank under different Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) Management Systems. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(4): 1300-1305