Abstract

Sicyos angulatus, an annual naturalized plant and originated from North America, is very productive viny plant. This species grows by twining around tree trunks, then blocks other plants from photosynthesis. In addition, Sicyos angulatus have allelopathic substances, such as 3-hydroxy-9H-xanthen-9-one, which make other plants withered and killed. Thus, it has become the biggest cause of the destruction of the ecosystem and biological diversity by threatening native plants. This study was performed to find out the effect of growth condition of burcucumber (Sicyos angulatus) at different soil water content (20%, 13%, 10%, 3%) and various shading degrees (0%, 60%, 80%) and cover crop residue treatments (control, low hairy vetch (HV1), high hairy vetch (HV3), low rye (R1), high rye (R3)). In the responses of burcucumber to soil water content, plant height (PH), leaf length (LL), leaf width (LW) and photosynthetic efficiency (PE) were lower at 20% water content than 10%. In shading experiment, PH, LL, LW and PE were lower at 80% than 60% shading and in general, the growth characteristics were lowered as the shading intensity increased. In the response of burcucumber to the residue treatment with several cover crops, germination rate was highly lowered to 37% by R3 as compared to the value of control (65%). Growth characteristics like PH, LL, LW and PE were more severely lowered by R3 treatment than HV3. Generally, burcucumber growth can be inhibited effectively under the conditions of low soil moisture (lower than 20%), high shading (greater than 80%), and soil mulching with rye residue. Further study on the combination effects of above factors should be conducted in future for effective ecological control of burcucumber.