A Technique for Studying Weed Competition in Forage Legume Establishment

A new technique designed for the study of various modes of weed competition has been developed and tested. It applies to almost all environmental conditions as they affect plant growth. The technique is adaptable to single factors and multiple factors in almost any combination. The only major restriction imposed by present dimensions is that only early competition can be studied. The uniformity of seed used in closely controlled competition studies is extremely important. Heavy seeds of redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus L.) produced plants that brought about earlier and more intense shading than plants from light redroot pigweed seed. Applying an aluminized Mylar reflective surface on the inside of the aerial portion of the competition box increased the growth rate and development of species and shortened the time interval for experiments by 10 days.