Smoke derived from burnt vegetation stimulates germination of arable weeds
By S. Adkins, N. Peters. Seed Science Research, 2001
117 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Abstract A commercially available smoke-water solution (Seed Starter®) stimulated the germination of caryopses and intact florets of Avena fatuaL. The solution was most effective when diluted (5–50%) and presented to intact or dehulled grain that had received a short period of dry after-ripening. It was less effective when applied at full strength or to grains that had been freshly harvested. The same stimulatory effect was observed in partly after-ripened caryopses of nine different wild oat biotypes obtained from three different cropping regions of the world. When freshly harvested caryopses were re-tested with the commercial solution (100%) for just 7 days prior to placement on to distilled water, a much higher germination percentage was possible than seen with continuous smoke-water incubation. The stimulatory ability of smoke water was more closely matched to that of gibberellic acid than to potassium nitrate, which had little or no effect on freshly harvested caryopses. The smoke-water solution (5–100%) was tested on the germination of 18 other cool temperate arable weed species. All monocotyledonous species tested (viz. Avena sterilis ssp. ludoviciana L., Alopecurus myosuroides, Sorghum halepense, Phalaris paradoxa) responded positively, while those of the dicotyledonous species were either strongly stimulated (≥40%stimulation Malva neglecta), moderately stimulated (≥20% stimulation Galium aparine, Veronica persica), slightly stimulated (Polygonum persicaria, P. pennsylvanicum, Fallopia convolvulus), unaffected (P. aviculare, Sinapis arvensis, Heracleum sphondylium, Angelica sylvestris, Mercurialis annua, Veronica hederifolia) or inhibited (Lamium purpureum). The optimal concentrations required to stimulate germination of the monocotyledonous species were similar to those observed for A. fatua (5–10%). However, for the dicotyledonous species slightly stronger solutions were required (10–20%). When the unaffected species were retested using a 10-day pre-chilling treatment, smoke water showed a small promotive response in three (S. arvensis, P. aviculare and V. hederifolia) of the six species. When four different smoke-water solutions (Seed Starter®, ®, charred-wood solution and wheat-straw solution) were tested on two representative species (A. fatua and M. neglecta), three formulations were effective in promoting the germination of both species, while the fourth (charred-wood solution) was only active on A. fatua. The active concentrations were different for the four solutions. Three solutions were active in the 2–20% dilution range, while the fourth (®) was only active in the 1–2% dilution range and was inhibitory at higher concentrations. These observations are discussed in the context that smoke may play an important ecological role in the management and control of introduced weeds in native and arable communities.
Subfields: Plant Science
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6d3687d27f6b871eb91f9fc70c41fddd6a077bc4
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Citations in the corpus
- Karrikins: A new family of plant growth regulators in smoke (2009, background): “007 to Australia [2], South Africa [3,4] and California [5,6], but crop [7,8] and weed species [9] also respond.”
- The potential of smoke in seed technology (2004, background): “Furthermore, it may even be possible to deplete arable weed seed banks through appropriate smoke treatments (Adkins et al. 2000, Adkins and Peters 2001).”
- Butenolide from plant-derived smoke enhances germination and seedling growth of arable weed species (2006, background): “Smoke can also stimulate the germination of species from non-fire prone environments such as a number of temperate arable weeds (Adkins and Peters 2001), lettuce (Lactuca sativa L., Drewes et al. 1995), celery (Apium graveolens L., Thomas and Van Staden 1995) and red rice (Oryza sativa, Doherty and…”
- Effects of a butenolide present in smoke on light-mediated germination of Australian Asteraceae (2006, background): “…to South Africa (Brown et al., 1993; Brown and Botha, 2004), Australia (Dixon et al., 1995; Roche et al., 1997) and California (Keeley and Fotheringham, 1998), as well as crop (Drewes et al., 1995; Thomas and van Staden, 1995) and weed (Doherty and Cohn, 2000; Adkins and Peters, 2001) species.”