Physiology of Stressed Crops
The Stress of Allelochemicals
U.S. Gupta: Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, USA
ISBN 978-1-57808-390-9; 2005; 202 pages; $ 84.00      Buy Now

Research on the physiology of crops under stress is of relatively recent origin and still in the stage of information building; practical use of the information gathered is yet to be made. Research on allelopathy and use of allelochemicals is one such example. The majority of work done focuses on the detrimental effects of living plants and their residues on crop growth, yield and quality, and little attention has been paid, that too only in the last 15-20 years, on making gainful use of this nature’s self defence mechanism, both by crops for weeds and weeds for crops, and so on. In this volume, unlike other books and symposium-volumes, efforts have been made to understand the problem and concentrate on aspects such as autotoxicity, crop-crop interference, crop-weed interference, weed-crop interference etc. for better understanding of the problems of monoculture, ratooning, crop rotation, mixed or strip cropping, mulching and weed smothering, etc. Further, the possibility of developing environment-friendly bio- or synthetic herbicides, and developing more aggressive crop varieties that can smother, kill or tolerate noxious weeds through conventional breeding or by using modern genetic engineering techniques to transfer desirable genes into commercial crop varieties, has been considered. Efforts made for identifying gene markers and modeling have also been discussed.

The book will be useful for crop stress physiologists agronomists, weed scientists, soil scientists, phytochemists, and practical crop growers and managers.



Contents:-
. The Mechanism of Allelochemical Stress
Introduction; Photosynthesis; Respiration; Water Potential; Nitrification; Nutrient Uptake;
Nodulation and N2 Fixation; Lipid Metabolism; Membrane Permeability; Nucleic Acids and
Proteins; Hormone Imbalance; References

. Autotoxicity
Introduction; Grain Crops (Cereals: Wheat, Rice; Millets: Pearlmillet, Maize, Sorghum; Grain
Legumes: Vigna, Pisum, Vicia, Cajanus); Vegetable Crops (Asparagus, Hot pepper, Eggplant,
Brassica (Cole crops), Tomato, Cucurbits and Watermelon, Taro); Sugar Yielding Crop (Sugarcane); Forage Crop (Alfalfa); Oilseed Crops (Sunflower, Soybean, Groundnut); Beverage Crops (Coffee and Tea); References

. Crop-Crop Interference
Introduction; Intercropping; Cereal Crops (Wheat, Rye, Barley, Triticale, Oats, Rice); Millets (Sorghum, Pearlmillet, Maize); Grain Legumes (Pigeonpea, Velvetbean); Oil Seed Crops (Brassicas, Sunflower, Soybean, Groundnut); Vegetable Crops; Forage Crops (Tall fescue, Alfalfa); Miscellaneous Crops (Kenaf, Tobacco, Watermelon, Grapevine); References

. Crop-Weed Interference
Introduction; Cereal Crops (Rice, Wheat, Rye, Oats, Millets (Sorghum, Maize, Pearlmillet); Grain Legumes; Forage Crops (Alfalfa; Velvetbean, Clusterbean); Vegetable and Root Crops (Capsicum, Tomato, Celery, Carrot, Lettuce, Cucumber, Watermelon, Onion, Sweetpotato, Radish); Oil Seed Crops (Mustard, Soybean, Sunflower); Multiple Crop Experiments; Allelochemicals as Bioherbicides; References

. Tree-Crop Interference
Introduction; Eucalyptus spp. (Cereal Crops, Millets, Grain Legumes, Vegetable Crops, Oilseed
Crops); Acacia species (Millets, Legumes, Oilseed Crops, Vegetable Crops, Spices); Prosopis
species; Coffee; Leucaena leucocephala; Populus deltoides; Glyricidia sepium; Artimisia; Juglan;
Some Less Worked Tree Species; References

. Weed-Crop Interference
Introduction; Some Important Allelopathic Weeds (Parthenium, Amaranthus, Cyperous, Cynodon,
Chenopodium, Bidens, Ipomoea, Ageratum, Echinochloa, Salvia, Panicum, Avena, Cassia, Digeria,
Imperata, Ocimum, Trianthus); Experiments With Multiple Weed Species; Some Less Worked
Allelopathic Weeds; References

. Allelochemicals Interaction with Other Stresses
Introduction; Moisture Stress; Waterlogging; Temperature Stress; Nutrient Stress; Radiation
Stress; Multiple Stresses; References

. Improvement Work
Introduction; Variability and Screening of Crop Varieties; Cereal Crops (Wheat, Rice, Oats, Rye, Barley); Millets; Grain Legumes (Pigeonpea); Oilseed Crops (Sunflower, Brassica spp., Soybean); Forage Crops (Alfalfa); Vegetable Crops (Cucurbits); Genetic and Breeding Studies; Modeling; References