Weed Emergence as Affected by Burying Depth and Water Management

The experiment was conducted to investigate emergence response of lowland weeds at different soil moisture contents, burying depths and upon changes in soil moisture. Rice germination was over 50% at all burying depths under aerobic condition, but the emergence rate of the soil surface placed seeds in saturated and flooded conditions decreased by 19% and 29%, respectively, as compared with that of aerobic condition. Rice seeds at burying depth of over 3 cm did not emerge at all. The emergence rate of Echinochloa crus­galli (L.) Beauv. in aerobic condition was lower than 30%, but the emergence pattern of E. crus galli (L.) Beauv. at different soil moisture contents and seeding depths was similar to that of rice. Emergence behavior of lschaemum rugosum Salisb., Ludwigia octovalvis (Jacq.) Raven and Sphenoclea zeylanica Gaertn. which are dominant lowland weed species in the Philippines also differed depending on soil moisture conditions and burying depths. lschaemum rugosum Salisb. emerged at all burying depths under aerobic condition, whereasLudwigia octovalvis (Jacq.) Raven emerged only at 0 cm deep under saturated and aerobic condition and Sphenoclea zeylanica Gaertn. at 0 cm deep under flooding condition. Weed seeds planted at 1, 3, and 5 cm deep in continuous flooded and saturated condition did not emerge at all, but upon a change of soil moisture condition from saturated to drainage (S$\rightarrow$D) and flooded to drainage (F$\rightarrow$D), grass weeds began to germinate again and the average emergence rate in S$\rightarrow$D and F$\rightarrow$D were 26% and 5% forE. crus­galIi (L.) Beauv., 9% and 8% forI. rugosum SaIisb., respectively. Weed seeds buried in soil in the pot showed great emergence at S$\rightarrow$D but did not emerge under continuous flooded condition. The diversity index accounting for dominance degree and occurrence aspect of weed, was the lowest at F$\rightarrow$D.