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Plant Science Today (PST)

Research Articles

Vol. 12 No. sp1 (2025): Recent Advances in Agriculture by Young Minds - II

Allelopathic effects of bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) whole plant extract and dry biomass on germination and growth of vegetable cowpea, okra and amaranth

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.10148
Submitted
19 June 2025
Published
10-10-2025

Abstract

The study was carried out to evaluate the allelopathic potential of bitter gourd on vegetable crops such as vegetable cowpea, okra and amaranth. The research comprised a germination bioassay (September 2023 to October 2023), to assess the allelopathic effect of whole plant extract of bitter gourd on germination and early seedling growth of vegetable cowpea and okra and a soil incubation study (November 2023 to December 2023) to evaluate the effect of bitter gourd dry biomass on the growth of amaranth seedlings. Both experiments were laid out in a Completely Randomised Design (CRD), with each treatment replicated five times. Statistical analysis (p <0.05) revealed that the aqueous extract of the whole plant of bitter gourd at a concentration of 5 w/v (T1) and 10 w/v (T2) caused a delay in seed germination in both okra and vegetable cowpea and a reduction in root and shoot growth in vegetable cowpea at the early growth stages compared to the control (T3-distilled water). The treatment T2 recorded the lowest seed germination (78.00±8.37 % in vegetable cowpea on day 5; 78.00±4.47 % in okra on day 4 of the study) but was statistically on par with T1. Soil incubation, with lower concentrations of bitter gourd dry biomass (I1-5g and I2-10 g), enhanced amaranth seedling dry weight at 20 and 30 days after transplanting (DAT), while higher concentration (I3-15 g) exhibited an inhibitory effect at 20 DAT compared to the control without incubation (I4). Through the adoption of proper management strategies to minimise the initial inhibitory effect of bitter gourd, crops such as vegetable cowpea, okra and amaranth can be successfully integrated into bitter gourd-based cropping systems.

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