The Allelopathic Effect of Dill Plant (Anethum graveolens L.) Residues on the Growth and Chemical Content of Two Types of Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Cultivars

A pot experiment was conducted at the greenhouse of Science College- Salahaddin University-Erbil, Iraq, during November 2009 to April 2010 to study the effect of different concentration of dill plant residue (added to soil at ratio 0, 2, 4, and 6% W: W mixed and incubated for four weeks) on some vegetative growth characters and chemical composition of leaves and grains of two barley cultivars (C1= Tedmor, C2=Barbara). The results indicated that the different concentration of dill plant residue were affected significantly (P 0.05) on most growth characters except number of tiller/plant. The highest values for all studied growth characters were recorded at 2% of dill plant residue for both cultivars. On the other hand, statistical analysis showed significant (P 0.05) differences between two cultivars on nutrient content of leaves and seeds. In general, increasing level of dill plant residue led to significant increase of nitrogen, protein percent, proline, phosphorus, Fe, K+, and Na+ content of the leaves in both cultivars.