Rice–wheat cropping system is very common in India. It contributes to over 70% of total food grain production in the country with an area of 12 M ha under this cropping system. However, it is estimated that under rice and wheat crops separately the area is 42.31 and 22.98 M ha respectively. Looking to the above facts a study at farmer’s field of Ambedkar Nagar district was under taken to evalua...

Leaf composts were studied for their suppressive effects on Pythium ultimum sporangium germination, cottonseed colonization, and the severity of Pythium damping-off of cotton. A focus of the work was to assess the role of fatty-acid-metabolizing microbial communities in disease suppression. Suppressiveness was expressed within the first few hours of seed germination as revealed by reduced P. ul...

This study was carried out to determine effects of different durations (20, 40, 60 days and control) of cold stratification treatments on seed germination and to overcome dormancy in seeds of twelve different drought tolerant plants. The species used in this study were Arbutus andrachne L., Cistus creticus L., Colutea armena Bois. Huet., Cotinus coggygria Scop., Cotoneaster numullaria Fisch. an...

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) production in the rainfed area of Pothwar Pakistan is extremely vulnerable to high temperature. The expected increase in temperature due to global warming should result in shorter crop life cycles, and thus lower biomass and grain yield. Two major factors control wheat phenological development: temperature and photoperiod. To evaluate wheat development in response to t...

People are worried about effect of household cleaning products in the environment. One of the sources of detergent is sewage that is being used for irrigation of the crops. A laboratory experiment and a pot experiment were conducted in 2012 to determine the effect of irrigation with different doses of detergent on plant growth and seed germination traits of maize (Zea mays). The experiments inc...

Gamma irradiation is one of the most important physical mutagen used for inducing beneficial as well as harmful cytogenetic effects in many crop plants. The cytogenetic changes occurring due to the storage of Lathyrus sativus L. seeds after gamma irradiation were examined during the present study. Mitotic index showed a dose dependant decrease while the dose and duration of treatments increased...

Species coexistence and local-scale species richness are limited by the availability of seeds and microsites for germination and establishment. We conducted a seed addition experiment in seminatural grassland at three sites in southern Switzerland and repeated the experiment in two successive years to evaluate various circumstances under which seed limitation and establishment success affect co...