Effects of leaf Chenopodium album extractions on seedling related traits of Sorghum bicolor cultivars

Received: 31 January, 2014 Accepted: 28 March, 2014 Published: 20 April, 2014 In order to evaluate allelopathic characteristics of leaf Chenopodium album extractions on germination and seedling growth of sorghum cultivars an experiment was carried out. A factorial experiment conducted based on completely randomized design with three replications under greenhouse conditions in Mianeh Azad University during 2009 season. Leaf extractions of 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% of Chenopodium album and five sorghum cultivars of Khaleseh, Galboos, Yengabad, Kimia and Spidfid arranged as different levels of first and second factors, respectively. Results showed that interactions of leaf extractions and sorghum cultivars were significance difference for traits of germination percentage, plumule and radicle lengths and fresh weights of them. With increasing leaf extractions reduced seed germination (44%) and the most germination percentage (100%) obtained at 0% extraction. The lowest seed germination (26%) was observed at Yingabad cultivar in 100% leaf extraction. This cultivar at 0% extraction had the highest plumule (227mm) and radicle (350mm) lengths. In contrast, the lowest lengths of plumule (86mm) and radicle (88mm) were allocated for Kimia cultivar at 100% leaf extraction. Within cultivars Khaleseh was tolerant for allelopathic characteristics of leaf Chenopodium album extraction at seedling growth stage; therefore it can be cultivated under these conditions. © 2014 PSCI Publisher All rights reserved.