ALLELOPATHIC EFFECTS OF PLANT PARTS OF TWO INVASIVE WEEDS ON SEED GERMINATION AND SEEDLING GROWTH OF MAIZE VARIETIES

The “Allelopathic effects of plant parts of two invasive weeds on seed germination and seedling growth of maize varieties” was investigated at the Agriculture Graduate laboratory, The Bacha khan University Charsadda Pakistan during summer, 2018. The experiment was carried out in CRD design and factorial arrangements repeated thrice.Five maize varieties namely Azam, Babar, Pahari, Iqbal, and Jalal comprised factor A while Factor B consisted of water extracts from root, stem and leaf of invasive weeds; Parthenium hysterophorus and Xanthium strumarium. Distilled water was used as control for comparison. Data were recorded for percent germination (%), seedlings length (cm), shoot weight (g) and root weight (g). It was evident from the results that maximum germination (100 %), Seedling length (7.6 cm), shoot weight (164.88 g) and root weight (163.8 g) was recorded for control (water) treatments. However, among the tested extracts the minimum germination (80.9 %) of maize varieties were achieved under P. hysterophorus stem extract. Maize variety “Pharri” revealed highest sensitivity towards allelopathic potential of different extract, giving minimum (80.95 %) germination. On the other hand, the maize variety “Babar” showed strong resistance against all applied extracts (treatments) and showed 100% seed germination. In the light of the current results it is recommended that the farmer should discourage the growth of P. hysterophorus weed in their filed as it has strong allelopathic effects on maize crop. Moreover, the farmers should grow maize variety Babar instead of others as this variety showed strong resistant to the allelopathic effects of both the invasive weeds studied.