Soil seed bank dynamics of Phalaris minor in relation to different cropping systems

The field experiments were conducted at the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana and at farmers fields during winter season 1999–2000 and 2000–2001 to study the soil seed bank dynamics of Phalaris minor in relation to different cropping systems. The studies envisaged that rice-berseem, rice-potato-wheat and rice-potato-sunflower systems completely exhausted the seed bank of P. minor within three years. While rice-gobhi sarson eliminated 67% of soil seed bank. Replacing wheat with berseem or onion reduced seed bank of P. minor markedly. Unweeded wheat after rice increased 57.7 per cent soil seed bank of P. minor from 1999–2000 to 2000–2001 due to addition of new seeds every year. At farmer's fields, rice-wheat system also recorded maximum (42 seeds kg⁻¹ soil) P. minor seed bank.