Seed germination and seedling growth of wheat and barley on influenced by the allelopathic effect of walnut (Juglans regia L.) leaf extracts under mid hills of Uttarakhand agri-silvi system

A laboratory experiment was conducted to observe the effect of Juglans regia L. leaf extracts on germination and subsequent seedling growth of wheat (cv.VL-907) and barley (cv.PRB-502) under West Himalayan agri-silvi system. Eleven treatments comprised of distilled water (Control =0%), 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90% and 100% concentration of leaf extracts were employed. The effect of aqueous extracts was found inhibitive indicating a direct proportional relationship with concentration dependent manner on seed germination and subsequent seedling growth of wheat. Invariably there was a decrease in root, shoot as well as seedling length, fresh and dry weight of seedling and vigour index I and II with increasing walnut leaf extracts concentration on wheat. However, barley seed showed a considerable resistance against walnut leaf extract and no significant reduction and trends was observed for seed germination and subsequent seedling growth i.e. fresh and dry weight, vigour index I and II for different concentration of leaf extracts.