Productivity and plasticity of wheat and Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. in pure and mixed stands.
Abstract
Both species responded to increasing density by extreme plasticity and there was no density-induced mortality even at 3200 plants/m2. In wheat the plasticity extended to seed weight. Increase in density of one species in the mixture adversely affected the growth and yield of the other species. Seed production of wheat decreased significantly with increase in density of C. dactylon, but wheat had a greater effect on growth of C. dactylon than the grass had on wheat. When one of the species was introduced later into the stand it suffered much more from competition than when the 2 species were introduced simultaneously.-R.B.