Junglerice (Echinochloa colona) and feather fingergrass (Chloris virgata) seed production and retention at sorghum maturity

Abstract

AbstractIn Australia, junglerice and feather fingergrass are problematic weeds in sorghum. The high seed production potential of these weeds increases their seedbank in the soil and makes weed control practices more difficult and expensive, particularly when weeds have evolved resistance to herbicides. A study was conducted to evaluate the seed production and seed retention behavior of junglerice and feather fingergrass at sorghum crop maturity following four transplanting times: 0, 2, 4, and 6 wk after sorghum emergence. Averaged across years, junglerice and feather fingergrass produced 4,060 and 5,740 seeds plant-1, respectively,when they were transplanted with the emergence of a sorghum crop. Seed retention ranged from 42% to 56% for junglerice and 67% to 75% for feather fingergrass when these weeds were transplanted from 0 to 4 wk after crop emergence. A positive correlation (r = 0.75 for junglerice; r = 0.44 for feather fingergrass) was found between seed production and weed biomass in both weeds, indicating that larger plants produced more seeds than smaller plants. However, no correlation was found between weed biomass and seed retention for junglerice. A weak positive correlation (r = 0.44) was found between feather fingergrass biomass and percent seed retention, indicating that seed retention was greater in larger plants compared with smaller plants. Our results suggest that feather fingergrass is a good candidate for harvest weed seed control (HWSC) tactics if crop harvest is timely. There is limited opportunity to use HWSC tactics for targeting junglerice seeds in sorghum crops, because most seeds dispersed before crop maturity. Additional research is required to evaluate seed retention levels of these weeds in other summer crops such as corn and soybean to determine the potential for HWSC for management of these species.