Suppressing Effect of Conocarpus lancifolius Aqueous Extract on Cereal Germination Physiology

An experiment was designed to evaluate the effect of Conocarpus lancifolius on cereal germination physiology in vitro environment at agronomic post graduate laboratory, faculty of Agriculture, Gomal University, D.I.Khan, KPK., Pakistan during the session 2021. The experimental design used was CRD with three replications. A control treatment was also included. By applying the water extract of C. lancifolius to cereal crops, namely wheat, oat, rice, millet, maize, and sorghum @ 25% (w/v) to check its allelopathic potential. The leaf water extract was applied at interval of 3 days for each treatment. The data obtained after 20 days showed that the aqueous extract of C. lancifolius effected differently for different crops. The effect of aqueous extract of C. lancifolius significantly enhance the germination count for all the cereal as compared to control. Similarly, the data recorded for plant tallness (cm) by the application of aqueous extract of C. lancifolius, the tallest plants were observed in oat, millet, and sorghum (14.6, 7.85 and 11.50 grams) respectively. Meanwhile, the aqueous extract of C. lancifolius reduced the plant height (cm) of all other cereals. Moreover, the data collected for shoot length (cm) indicated that the aqueous extract of C. lancifolius responded positively for improving the shoot length of oat as compared to control, while all other crops showed negative effect. The results further described that the aqueous extract of C. lancifolius proved to be effective in improving the root length of oat and sorghum. However, the data recorded for root length of maize were found like the control treatment and remain unaffected. Similarly, the regarded epicotyl length (cm) indicated that the application of aqueous extract of C. lancifolius responded positively in uplifting the epicotyl length (cm) of sorghum followed millet and oat having their epicotyl length 1.31, 1.16 and 1.1 (cm) respectively. However, the application of C. lancifolius aqueous extract adversely affected the count of leaves per plant, fresh and dry wight (gm) and chlorophyll content of all the crops studied.