Influência de extrato aquoso de milho na germinação e crescimento inicial da alfafa

Abstract

Alfalfa crop is a forage of great importance due to its high productivity and quality of forage, presenting approximately 20% of crude protein and its production can reach 20 tons / hectare of dry mass per year, besides, it can be used in different ways such as haying, silage, pelletized (compacted) forage, green forage and grazing. However, alfalfa has autotoxicity, that is, plants produce substances that limit germination. Alfalfa autotoxicity can affect germination, crop establishment and yield in areas where it overlaps, thus necessitating crop rotation. Farmers in the Missions region use this crop to grow maize. Therefore, the objective of this work is to evaluate the allelopathic potential of aqueous corn extract at different concentrations (1%, 2.5%, 5%, 7.5% and 10%) on alfalfa germination and initial development. Laboratory tests were conducted, which concluded that the aqueous extract of corn shoot showed an allelopathic effect reducing the final germination percentage and alfalfa germination speed index only from 7.5% concentration. At concentrations up to 5%, aqueous corn extract caused an increase in the final germination percentage and alfalfa germination speed index in relation to the control with distilled water. For root length, shoot length, number of abnormal seedlings and fresh seedling mass, it was observed that all extract concentrations had negative allelopathic effect, where the concentrations of 7.5 and 10% had the highest effect. allelopathic.