Nowadays, allelopathy is topic of interest for weed control. Scientists are isolating the natural phytotoxins/allelochemicals for weed control. How one can justify that isolated allelochemicals will inhibit the growth of weeds only and not of the crop?
The most important thing would be to test the crop of interest to see if it is susceptible to injury.
It sounds difficult to do; responses to allelochemicals vary among species, regardless of whether plants are weeds or crops. As an example, I am sending you a study we did on allelopathic effects of sunnhemp (Crotalaria juincea).
Screening crop tolerance is an essential component prior to recommendation, just like in the case of herbicides, tolerance levels may vary across and withinspecies
Indeed isolated phytotoxins may have effects on a range of organisms including plants. Therefore, researchers do work with these phytotoxins on weeds and crops, as they do with synthetic herbicides. Tests should be done on both weed and crops aiming to check the weed and not the crop. Furthermore, species by species of both weed and crop.
It is so simple...........allelopathic effects (both inhibitory and promotive) are species specific and concentration dependent. A species growth may be inhibited by an allelochemical at any concentration, and the same chemical might be promoting the growth of same species at an other concentration. Which species are influenced in which way at which concentration/s, is the actual topic that we ought to know for practical utilization of allelopathy in agro-ecosystems either as an inhibitory tool (for weed management) or as a growth promoter (for crops of economic significance).
The famous saying, "Dose makes a poison", holds as true in allelopathy as in pharmacological studies. A lot of data on dose-dependent, species specific effects of natural phytotoxins of plant origin are available.
I think you might have to try to germinate the crop in a petri dish or in a vessel (laboritory) with the phytotoxin
As stated by respected Khaliqu effects are co -related with consntration ,time and climatetic changes.For reference my articles (RG) may viewed.
I use the selectivity index to determine the amount of damage to the host plant compared to the associated weeds
Conference Paper ALLELOPATHIC EFFECTS OF CUCURBITA PEPO L. AND EUCALYPTUS CIT...
Presentation Allelopathic effects of Cucurbita pepo L. and Eucalyptus cit...
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