Date of Award

Spring 1997

Document Type

Legacy Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (BS)

Department

Biology

College

College of Science

First Advisor

Colleen A. Lohr

Abstract/Description

The soybean (Glycine max), South Carolina's most agronomic crop is constantly in competition with such agricultural pest weeds as the common cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium). This experiment was designed in order to investigate the density at which the growth of the soybean plant is most notably inhibited by the growth of a common, natural pest weed in a competition setting. One hundred pots were planted for this procedure, each containing varying numbers of weed and soybean seeds. Raw data for the experiment was compiled and fed into an SAS statistical program which conducted a two-way analysis of variance. The results were then used to identify trends of interaction within each of the treatment levels between soybeans and weeds. Of the 154 soybean seeds that germinated out of the 180 that were planted (86% germination), it was found that the presence of the weed at densities of 3 weeds per pot were seemingly most effective at facilitating the height of the soybean plants, when there were three or less soybeans planted. The data for the other two comparisons made (weight and the ratio of height to weight) were inconclusive and made no valid assumptions about trends of growth of the soybean plant.

Download

Share

COinS