Allelopathic Action of the Níger (Guizotia abyssinica Cass.) on Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill)

Gustavo Negro Devequi,Aline Maria Orbolato Gonçalves-Zuliani,Patrícia Da Costa Zonetti,Mateus Luiz De Oliveira Freitas,Edison Schmidt Filho,Flávia Helena De Moura Libório,Luciano Ivano Da Silva,André Ribeiro Da Costa,Anny Rosi Mannigel,Graciene De Souza Bido,Daniele Fernanda Felipe,Ricardo Andreola

doi:10.5296/jas.v8i1.15401

Abstract

Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) is an agricultural crop with a large increase in production in the last three decades and is an essential component in the manufacture of animal and human food. Understanding the interactions between crop and other plant species used as green manure that can improve yield and so reduce environmental damage. Forages can release secondary metabolites in the environment that influence in a beneficial or harmful way to other plants, characterizing the allelopathy process. The Níger (Guizotia abyssinica Cass.) is used in agricultural systems because it releases allelochemicals, especially flavonoids. Therefore, this study is aimed to evaluate the allelopathic effects of the Niger straw on the germination and initial growth of soybean seedlings. The treatments consisted of aqueous extracts of niger stems, leaves and roots in different concentrations (0; 25; 50; 75 and 100%). For each treatment, five replications were performed, each composed by a 25 seeds distributed in gearbox kept in incubator chamber for 7 days at 25ºC and 12 hours photo period. The experimental design was completely randomized and the data were evaluated by analysis of variance and the means of treatments compared by Tukey’s test at 5% significance. The results show a reduction in germination and initial growth of soybean seedlings submitted to aqueous extract of niger stem and roots. In contrast, the aqueous extract of the Niger leaves increased the length of soybean seedlings. The allelopathic effects of the Niger probably occur due to the presence of flavonoids in the tissues of this plant species.

Highlights

The Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill.) is among the main crops consumed and produced worldwide, behind only corn, wheat and rice (Hirakuri and Lazzarotto, 2014)
The soybean variety (Glycine max (L.) Merrill.) used was BRS 216, which was provided by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation – EMBRAPA/Soybean, Londrina, Paraná, Brazil
According to Ferreira and Borghetti (2004), germination is less responsive to allelochemicals than to growth

Summary

Introduction

The Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill.) is among the main crops consumed and produced worldwide, behind only corn, wheat and rice (Hirakuri and Lazzarotto, 2014). With the progressive increase in world soybean production it became necessary to find alternative cultivation, such as the implementation of a no-tillage system which can increase soil productivity in a sustainable and economical way by promoting improvements in physical, chemical and biological attributes, helping to protect the soil from erosion and irradiation, besides conserving moisture and providing nutrient cycling, which motivates farmers to use green manure in crop succession and rotation systems (Carvalho et al 2014; Simonetti et al, 2019) This planting techniques were pointed out as a system capable of contributing to sustainability by maintaining the straw of the previous crop, so the organic matter maintained can release allelochemicals that act as herbicides, reducing agrochemical costs and has an environmental impact (Darolt, 2000; Fontanétti et al, 2004; Monquero et al, 2009). Knowledge of the allelopathic effects of various substances is important to understand interactions between plant species in both natural and agricultural ecosystems (Jabran et al, 2015)

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