Effect of Essential Oils of Wild Herbs on Germination and Seed Bank of a Commercial Lot in Fusagasuga (Colombia)

Background: One of the problems encountered in agriculture which affects most crops, is weed control. Herbicide use has created environmental problems, toxicity and resistance of some species. An alternative is the use of essential oils, which can produce allelopathic effects causing inhibition of germination and growth of weeds. Methods: The trial was set up in a greenhouse at an Esperanza farm (Fusagasuga, Colombia), consisting of placing soil in trays and apply uniform irrigation with a completely randomized design with nine treatments with five replications. Treatments included a Lippia alba extracts in three concentrations of 100, 300 and 500 mg/L, water, water plus coadjuvant and a commercial herbicide as control. Germination rates of different groups of weeds were valued and control rates were determined. Results and discussion: For dicotyledonous treatments Baccharis trinervis (100 mg/L) and L. alba (500 mg/L) showed the best values controls 59.9 and 54.9 % against uncontrolled treatment. A second group includes all treatments of L. alba with values showing a regular control against uncontrolled treatment. The herbicide atrazine showed a percentage of control to 37.3%) is a poor control as measured for scale Association Latinoamerican weed management (ALAM). To treat grass weeds with atrazine worth 76.6%, within the range that ALAM is a good control. Baccharis s trinervis (500 mg/L) with 59.8% and B. trinervis (300 mg/L) with 50.9% in the scale that appears as a regular ALAM control. For sedges, weeds show that better controls corresponded to L. alba (500 mg/L) and the commercial herbicide with values of 59.7 and 54.0%, respectively. Continue treatments B. trinervis (100 mg/L and 300 mg/L) controls 50.7 and 43.6%. Controls obtained are largely due to the metabolites present as sesquiterpenes Essential Oils (EO) as acting as inhibitors of seed germination. Conclusions: The E.O of B. trinervis and L. alba showed better control of dicotyledonous weeds and sedges that the herbicide. Grass weeds in herbicide outperformed the other treatments but showed percentages of acceptable control.