Wild Mustard ( Sinapis arvensis L.) Competition with Three Winter Cereals as Affected by Nitrogen Supply

Two field experiments were carried out in northern Greece during the 1993–94 and 1994–95 growing seasons to investigate the effect of nitrogen (N) supply on interspecific competition between wild mustard ( Sinapis arvensis L.) and wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.), barley ( Hordeum vulgare  = distichum L.) and triticale ( Triticosecale ). The presence of 140 S. arvensis plants m −2 until early March (averaged over N levels) did not have any adverse effect on the dry weight of all crops. However, its further presence significantly reduced the dry weight of wheat and triticale, but not that of barley. N fertilization (150 kg N ha −1 regardless of application time) slightly increased the dry weight of wheat and triticale grown without weed competition compared with that of control (0 kg N). On the contrary, the presence of wild mustard, until harvest, reduced dry weight of wheat and triticale by 31 and 26 %, respectively, while the corresponding reduction for barley was only 1.5 %. Furthermore, N fertilization (150 kg N ha −1 ) increased dry weight of wild mustard grown with wheat and triticale by 10 and 16 %, respectively, compared with that of control (0 kg N). Grain yield of wheat and triticale was reduced to 26 and 27 % by the competition of wild mustard, respectively, while the corresponding reduction for barley was only 3.5 %. Moreover, the wild mustard presence reduced total N content of wheat and triticale by 20 and 19 %, respectively, but this was not the case for barley.