2012 Volume 3 Issue 1 Pages 10-15
Corn (Zea mays L.) is one of the three most important cereals in the world. Peru is one of the centers of biodiversity of corn in the world and has 35 ecotypes. In this study we compared the allelopathic activity of Peruvian native varieties of corn using the plant box method to evaluate the activity by root exudate and sandwich method to evaluate the activity by leaf leachate for sustainable weed managements. An experiment using native varieties of 6 Peruvian corn races (Cuzco, Amarillo ancashino, Morado, Piscorunto, Chullpy, Terciopelo) was conducted at National Agrarian University La Molina, Peru. Cuzco race (known as Giant corn) was the strongest with more than 75% of lettuce radicle inhibition. Besides, these samples were evaluated by sandwich method using 10 and 50 mg of dry leaves (24 hours at 60 °C). Another experiment to compare Peruvian and Japanese varieties was conducted at National Institute for Agro-Environmental Science, Japan. A total of 85 varieties (3 Peruvian varieties and 82 Japanese varieties) and 3 types of teosinte Euchlaena mexicana were evaluated by plant box method. From this evaluation, Peruvian varieties of Morado (known as Purple corn) and Maiz cancha, both varieties of soft corn type, showed a strong inhibitory activity. Kuromochikibi and other Japanese varieties of waxy corn type showed also strong inhibition of lettuce radicle growth. As a conclusion, we found that Peruvian native purple corn and varieties of soft corn and waxy corn types have potent allelopathic activity and promising crop for weed control at sustainable agriculture.
