Allelopathy Journal

Sugarcane is grown in monoculture in tropical and subtropical regions for sugar production. Since the sugarcane planting is very expensive, hence, the crop is ratooned for many years, leading to a reduction in the crop yield due to soil borne problem. Evidence from the literature indicates that this problem is ‘sugarcane soil sickness’. Detrimental changes in soil physico-chemical properties and multiplication of some phytopathogenic fungi are associated with the phenomenon. The intraspecific allelopathy (autotoxicity) is one component of sugarcane soil sickness. Synthesis, de novo, of microbial phytotoxins and microbial transformation of sugarcane allelochemicals to more phytotoxic products is also possible. Hence more studies are needed to establish the chemical nature of sugarcane phytotoxins and the real impact of these compounds on sugarcane soil sickness.