Preliminary Study on the Effect of Certain Weeds Control Strategies on the Seed Bank in the Soil

Abstract

Regular studies of the soil seed bank can give a lot of information about different weed species persist in experimental fields, and help in planning of different weed management strategies. In this work, two field experiments in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) were carried out at Giza Farm Station located at Giza governorate, Egypt, to evaluate the effect of certain weed control strategies on the weeds’ species seed bank in the soil during the summer season of the years 2021 and 2022. To determine all weed species in the soil seed bank, both emergence method and extracted seeds method were used. Ten weed control treatments were applied in the experiment including 6 treatments of herbicides using different combinations, and 3 treatments of hoeing (1, 2 and 3 times), in addition to the untreated control treatment. After application of treatments, soil samples were taken at depth of 5 cm and 15 cm from the soil surface, to study weed seedbank distribution in the soil and identify the species present. Results obtained indicated that the emergence method has given less seedling number than those of seed extraction method, and horizontal distribution in soil seed bank at zero time showed high significance at P≥ 0.01 between the experimental replicates for most weed species and their total, whereas the vertical distribution of soil seed bank showed no significant difference between the two depth of 5 and 15 cm for all weed species except those of Setaria virids and Ipomia eriocarpa. It can be concluded from this study that the implemented control strategy based on applying pre- and post emergence herbicides and hoeing treatments in two subsequent seasons summer seasons had reduced significantly the soil seed bank of all identified weed species and their total.

Keywords:

Weed management, weed seedbank, herbicides, Setaria viridis and Ipomia eriocarpa.