Assessment of competition between crops and weeds

Summary A two‐species model was used to summarize results of four experiments with two component mixtures of barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.), peas ( Pisum sativum L.), Chenopodium album L. and Sinapis alba L. grown in pots in greenhouses. The results, covering a wide range of plant densities both in mixtures and pure stands, showed that the model was not always able to describe the relationship between the yield of a species and the densities of itself and its companion species. The deviations from the model were in all instances greatest for the least competitive species. The model that quantifies competition and niche differentiation appeared to be too general because competition between species was not independent of the wide plant density ranges used here. The results are discussed in relation to possible improvements of the model and an analogy between the principles of assessing crop weed competition and the assessment of the relative potency of herbicides in bioassay studies is put forward.