Mouse Barley Germination Environmental Factors Influencing Germination of Mouse Barley (Hordeum murinum L.) in South Khorasan Province, Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Abstract

Mouse barley (Hordeum murinum), from the poaceae family, is an abundant annual grass weed in wheat fields of South Khorasan province. Determining the ecological factors of this grass weed will contribute to development of its control programs. Effects of environmental factors on germination and emergence of mouse barley was investigated in the laboratory. Although mouse barley germination was greater than 85% at salinity level of 160 mM, further increase of salinity caused a remarkable decrease in its germination, following a 3% decrease in germination at salinity level of 320mM. Increasing osmotic potential from 0 to -0.8 MPa, resulted in an 80% decrease in its germination. Mouse barley germination was not affected by the pH and in a pH range of 4 to 10 remained approximately 90%. Emergence depth test showed that the maximum emergence of mouse barley occurred for seeds placed on the soil surface (86%) and no seedlings emerged from the seeds buried at 10cm depth. High germination ability of mouse barley under diverse environmental conditions may greatly contribute to it as a problematic weed species in the wheat fields of the region

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