Weed seeds stratification in contrasting soil texture on the bank of river godavari

Abstract

The experiment was conducted at Central Tobacco Research Institute (CTRI), Rajahmundry, Andra Pradesh, 2013 to investigate the role of soil texture in weed seed germination and effect of depth of soil profile on emergence of weed seeds. The soil samples were collected from 3 places viz. Rajahmundry, Katheru farm under CTRI both belong to East Godavari district and Chainnaigudem village in West Godavari district with sandy, clay and sandy loam in texture respectively. Soil samples were collected from 0–10, 10–20, 20–30 and 30–40 cm depth of soil profile using core sampler. Each site represents were approximately 1300 m2 area and 32 samples from 4 depths for every site. So, total 144 samples were collected to conduct the experiment. Germinated weeds identified and counted every week and 10 weeks study was carried out. Sandy, sandy loam and clay soil texture found significant non-linear relationship between weed germination and soil depth. All three places recorded significant interaction between depth and seed germination. Soil depth upto 20 cm recorded maximum weed emergence both monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous; however, dicotyledonous weeds recorded more in number than monocotyledon in four consecutive depths. Sandy soil found highest number of germinated weeds than sandy loam and clay texture soils.