Irradiation Effects for the Growth Inhibition of Weed Seeds Invaded from Foreign Countries.

Abstract

Weeds of foreign origin have been invaded through imported maize or dried grass which using for animal feeds, and causing serious damages to agricultural crops and farm animals in Japan These weeds are spreading mainly through animal feeds to feces For the purpose to decrease the damage from these weeds, we investigated the gamma-irradiation effect on 7 species of the weed seed to suppress the germination or elongation of stem and root After the irradiation of the weed seeds, all species kept the ability of germination even at 4 kGy in petri dish cultivation, whereas decreased the germination ratio in some species However, many species of weed decreased the ability on elongation of stem or root below l kGy irradiation Furthermore, all of species lost the ability on the development of root hair and appearance of first leaf after germination of seeds below 1 kGy irradiation From this study, necessary dose for growth inhibition was estimated to be 1 kGy which should be able to apply with combination treatment of the animal feeds for elimination of pathogenic bacteria such as salmonellae at 3 to 5 kGy irradiation (author)