EFFECT OF PLANT DENSITY ON COMPETITION BETWEEN SOFT WHEAT Triticum aestivium and WILD OAT Avena fatua.

Abstract

The competition between two soft wheat species (Tritium aestivum) and wild Oat( Avena fatua) in pure and mixed stands experiments were carried out in pots, green house in College of Science / University of Salahaddin during 1 st December 2011 to 7 th April 2012. For wheat plant, the concerned plant characteristics were: plant height, number of tillers/plant, length of flag leaves, length of spikes, number of grains/spike, total shoot dry weight are concerned. For wild Oat the concerned plant characteristics were: Plant height, number of tillers/plant, length of flag leave, length of inflorescence, number of seeds/ inflorescence, total shoot dry weight. The results indicated that in both species the growth characterized and yield components were affected by increasing plant density. The vegetation growth, yield components and competitive ability of wheat was higher in low densities in comparison with wild Oat, while that of wild Oat was in adverse direction. Also plant growth characteristics and competition ability was increased at high density. Wheat had double competitive ability than Oat at extreme high density, while Oat was more competitive than wheat at low density.