Effects of plant density and proportion on the interaction between wheat with alexandergrass plants

Abstract

Determination of competitive relationships among plant species requires appropriate experimental designs and method of analysis. The hypothesis of this research was that two species growing in coexistence show different growth and development due to their relative competitiveness. This research aims to measure the relative competitiveness of wheat crop compared to Alexandergrass by the interpretation of plant density and proportional effects using replacement series experiments. Monocultures were cultivated in densities of 1, 3, 5, 10 and 15 plants per pot and analyzed by regression of dry mass data. Mixture experiment was cultivated in wheat:Alexandergrass proportions of 0:6, 1:5, 2:4, 3:3, 4:2, 5:1 and 6:0 plants per pot and analyzed by graphical interpretation of growth and production characteristics. Both experiments were carried out in randomized complete block design with four replicates. Alexandergrass was more sensitive to intraspecific competition than wheat. Alexandergrass was lightly more competitive than wheat. Number and weight of spikes and number of tillers were the wheat characteristics more affected by Alexandergrass interference.