Evaluation of wheat (Triticum aestivum L) and rye (Secale cereal L) competitiveness using replacement design at south west of Azerbaijan Province in Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Islamic Azad University, Mahabad Branch, Iran

2 Professor, University of Tehran, Iran

3 Assistant Professor, Agriculture Research Center and Natural Resources of West Azarbaijan, Iran

Abstract

In recent years, rye caused heavy damages in wheat farms in Iran. In order to evaluate wheat competitiveness ability against rye, an experiment was conducted in replacement series design. Field experiment was carried out at the Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Station in Miandoab during 2009-2010 (for 2 years). The experimental design was a randomized complete block design with 3 replacements. In this study, treatments include pure wheat sowing and rye replacement by 10% upto pure rye sowing. The result showed that rye replacement decreased wheat yield. Relative density coefficient (RCC) and total relative yield (RYT) was <1, indicating the negative effects of these two plants on each other. The results showed that when rye is the main crop and wheat is the volunteer crop, wheat will damage rye when its density is over 45 plants per m2. However, when wheat is the main crop, the negative role of rye was detected by its density under 45 plants per m2. Therefore, the result showed that rye had better competitive ability than wheat. The planting of these two crops was not recommended because it seems these two had antagonistic effect on each other.

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