Seed Germination and seedling growth of wheat and barley influenced by the allelopathic effect of walnut (Juglans regia L.) leaf extracts under mid hills of Uttarakhand Agri-Silvi system

Abstract

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 0 (Control), 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 trend 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. © 2014 Knowledgia Review, Malaysia.