FAT HEN INCORPORATED AND RHIZOSPHERE SOIL AFFECTS THE GERMINATION AND SEEDLING GROWTH OF MUNGBEAN AND MAIZE

Fat hen is a dominating weed of wheat and several important crops around the globe. Interference of this weed has not only caused substantial yield reduction in associated crops but also negatively influenced the succeeding crops in rotation pattern. Residual effects of fat hen infested soils were investigated in a bioassay at glass house, Department of Agronomy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan during 2021. Rhizosphere soil along with fat hen incorporated soils were included in experiment while, for comparison sand and clay loam soils were also used as control treatments. Data regarding germination indices like time taken to 50 percent germination, mean emergence time, final emergence percentage, germination index, germination energy and seedling growth parameters like shoot/root length, shoot/root dry weight all indicated that fat hen incorporated soils exhibited a strong negative effect on the test crops (mungbean and maize). Whereas, rhizosphere soil also showed inhibitory effect on both test crops in comparison to sand and clay loam soils. However, the negative effects of incorporated soils are more prominent than the rhizosphere soil of fat hen. Rich allelochemicals profile of fat hen could be the possible reason of these negative influences. Findings of this investigation were used for planning of crop rotation pattern because farmers incorporate the standing fat hen into the soil after harvesting of their crops. So, farmers should avoid incorporation of fat hen in to the soil to avoid the possible negative effect on the succeeding crops.