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GERMINATION OF SOME IMPORTANT WEEDS INFLUENCED BY RED LIGHT AND NITROGENOUS COMPOUNDS

DONG-SHENG TANG^1◦, MUHAMMAD HAMAYUN^2◦, ABDUL LATIF KHAN^3,4, ZABTA KHAN SHINWARI⁵, YOON-HA KIM³, SANG-MO KANG³, JOON-HEE LEE³, CHAE-IN NA⁶, YASMIN NAWAZ⁷, KEE-KYUNG KANG⁸ AND IN-JUNG LEE^3*

Abstract: Seed dormancy is a major constraint in the eradication of weeds from agriculture fields. Seeds of Amaranthus retroflexus, Echinocloa crus-galli and Digitaria adscendens were collected from cultivated fields, dried and then treated with different nitrogen containing compounds i.e., potassium nitrate, ammonium chloride, ammonium nitrate and sodium nitrite. Some seeds were kept under dark while others were irradiated with red light for 10 min., after 12 hr of inhibition. The N-compounds were applied @ 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 mM, while the strength of red light pulse was maintained at 80μmols^-2m^-1. It was observed that red light significantly improved germination rates of A. retroflexus, E. crus-galli and D. adscendens. Nitrogenous compounds significantly improved germination of weeds and maximum germination was induced by ammonium nitrate. However, exposure of seeds to both red light and N-compounds provided significantly higher germination as compared to singular application of either of them. E. crusgalli recorded highest germination rates in response to red light and N-compounds, while D. adscendens provided least values for the same treatments. Application of N-compounds in conjunction with red light significantly improves germination rates of selected weed species by breaking their dormancy.

¹Key Laboratory of Agri-biodiversity and Pest Management, Yunnan Agricultural University, China

²Department of Botany, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan Pakistan

³School of Applied Biosciences, Kyungpook National University, Daegu South Korea

⁴Kohat University of Science & Technology, Kohat Pakistan

⁵Department of Biotechnology, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad Pakistan

⁶Forage Evaluation Support Lab, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida USA

⁷Department of Zoology, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan Pakistan

⁸Climate Change & Ecology Division, RDA, Suwon, South Korea,

^◦DS Tang and M. Hamayun contributed equally to the paper

*Corresponding author: ijlee@knu.ac.kr