Relative competitiveness of soybean cultivars with barnyardgrass

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this work was to evaluate the competitiveness between soybean cultivars and barnyardgrass, based on morphological and physiological characteristics of species. The experiments were conducted in completely randomized experimental design, with 4 replications. In the first study, for both soybean and barnyardgrass, it was determined the population of plants in which shoot dry matter became constant and independent of the population (16 plants∙pot−1 or 400 plants∙m−2). In the second study, 2 experiments were conducted to evaluate the competitiveness of BMX Apolo RR and BMX Potência RR soybean cultivars with barnyardgrass plants, both carried out in replacement series under different proportions of plants∙pot−1 (100:0; 75:25; 50:50; 25:75 and 0:100) between the crop and the weed. The analysis of the species competitiveness was determined through diagrams applied to replacement series experiments and use of relative competitiveness indexes. At 44 days after the emergence of species, the physiological and morphological parameters of the crop and the weed were evaluated. The BMX Apolo RR and BMX Potência RR soybean cultivars show similar competitiveness when competing with the barnyardgrass; therefore, the ability of one species to interfere on another is equivalent. For plant height, barnyardgrass displays higher competitiveness compared to BMX Apolo RR, with early cycle and short height. The intraspecific competition is more important to barnyardgrass than interspecific competition with soybean cultivars, resulting in negative effects on the morphological and physiological characteristics of species.