ALLELOPATHIC EFFECT OF Dendrocalamus longispathus KURZ AND Schizostachyum dullooa GAMBLE ON MAIZE AND SOYABEAN CROPS

Abstract

Bamboo having multifarious utility and benefits to environment and socio-economic sustainability are grown widely either as plantations or as agroforestry woody perennial species. Although, Dendrocalamus longispathus and Schizostachyum dullooa, the two important bamboo species of North East India are cultivated as pure stands, their agroforestry potential is not known yet. Therefore, to test its allelopathic effect, different concentrations of leaf extracts of D. longispathus and S. dullooa were applied to crops such as maize and soyabean under bioassay and pot culture. The study showed that the leaf extracts of both the bamboo species did not have any inhibitory effect on the germination of maize in bioassay. In the case of soyabean, some stimulatory effect of these two bamboo species was observed in germination per cent both in bioassay as well as in pot culture. The study also revealed that the leaf extracts of D. longispathus reduced dry root weight of maize with 5g+soil treatment by 34.29% compared to control. The highest shoot biomass of soyabean was observed at 10g+soil. Also, S. dullooa extracts in pot culture showed a stimulatory effect on the root dry weight of maize at 10g+soil and 20g+soil treatments.. Both root and shoot dry weight of soyabean increased at high concentration of S. dullooa extracts. The results revealed that the soyabean was more affected than maize by these two bamboo species and S. dullooa showed more inhibition to the test crops compared to D. longispathus.