Caroline Alday
General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research ,Administration of Plant Protection.
Faculty of Agriculture, Damascus University
2018
ABSTRACT
This research was conducted at the weed biological control section, in The Biological Control Studies and Researches Center, Faculty of Agriculture, Damascus University (Syria), during 2016,2017 to study some traditional methods and aqueous extract and organic matter powder on germination and growth of field dodder seeds, C. campestris Yunck. Also identification of dodder species spread in some Syrian provinces. Two species of dodder were identified, C.campestris and C.japonica collected from visiting field in (Damascus, Damascus countryside, Daraa, Hama, Sweida, Lattakia and Tartous).
Four treatments were used: Using aqueous extract for five different species, viz. Castor, Ricinus communis (leaves), Sun flower, Helianthus annus (leaves and flower heads), Alfalfa, Medicago sativa (whole plant) and field bean, Phaseolus vulgaris (whole plant) with four concentrations (100-75-50-25) for each species. In addition, the organic powder of the same materials was used in four quantities. The experiment was done in pots in the net house. Some of the traditional methods used was the continuous irrigation for (10-20) days before planting the crop, also the dried straw was used to collect the dodder seedlings.
The best results in reducing the dodder seed germination was with the castor plant extract with the concentration 100% as compared with the control. The germination was reduced to 4.16%. While the lowest effective treatment was with the extract of sunflower heads with highest rate of seed germination (65.83%). The results were similar with the use of organic powder. The castor powder gave the best results with lowest seed germination (21.67%) at 100 g/kg soil. When continuous irrigation was used, the lowest germination obtained at the 20th day with 47.5% as compared the control, 90% and the best practice for the dry straw was with thickness of 30 mm to gather the dodder seedling.