Journal of Experimental Agriculture International

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) turns out to be such a pivotal annual crop all of the world and has been commonly used for food security. Crop-weed competition induces stress in plants and can also bring about morphophysiological changes due to a differential resource partition in cropping systems. The aim of this research was to evaluate morphophysiological responses of common bean under competition with hairy beggarticks using a replacement series. Thus, a replacement series was conducted in a completely randomized experimental design with four replications. Crop-weed treatment competition between common bean cultivar BRS Esteio and hairy beggarticks was imposed at the following mixture ratios: 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75 and 0:100. Diagrams based on relative yield (RY) and relative yield total (RYT) were employed to identify crop-weed competition effects in light of the respective monoculture and additional control with one plant alone. Crop-weed competition reduced RY for both species, with such a greater loss to common bean plants due to intraspecific competition, whereas the interspecific competition strongly affected morphological responsiveness of hairy beggarticks. Ecophysiological parameters of common beans were negatively impacted by intraspecific competition at rations of 75:25 and 50:50. For hairy beggarticks, either intra or interspecific competition impinged upon ecophysiological parameters of common bean plants as opposed to monoculture cropping system. Common bean cultivar BRS Esteio evidenced a higher competitive ability along with competitiveness index compared to hairy beggarticks, indicating a faster establishment and a conspicuous advantage for the crop to capture available environmental resources in order to assure sustainable crop production at a commercial scale.