ORIGINAL ARTICLE
A glance at isotherapy to control weed germination
1
Institut Technique de l’Agriculture Biologique (ITAB), Fédération Régionale des AgroBiologistes de Champagne-Ardenne,
Chalons-en-Champagne, France
2
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), 21065, Dijon, France
A - Research concept and design; B - Collection and/or assembly of data; C - Data analysis and interpretation; D - Writing the article; E - Critical revision of the article; F - Final approval of article
Submission date: 2018-07-02
Acceptance date: 2019-03-19
Online publication date: 2019-04-04
Corresponding author
Journal of Plant Protection Research 2019;59(1):19-25
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Currently more and more research is being done on integrated weed management to
reduce or avoid herbicide use. Some growers are already using isotherapic dilutions to
control weeds in organic farming. Isotherapy is different from homeopathy because it uses
diluted and potentized (succussed) solutions of alcoholic macerate of the very pest causing
health troubles. We set up a germination experiment to test if isotherapic dilutions of leaf
macerate of annual ryegrass affect the dynamics of its seed germination in Petri dishes. Our results were diverse, from no effect to 10% more growing degree days necessary to reach
50% germination. It is doubtful that so low an effect will contribute to integrated weed
management unless the slightly delayed germination triggers secondary effects at other
life stages. This is in accordance with the scientific literature on that topic: two-fifths of the
reports showed no effect, two-fifths resulted in positive responses and one-fifth had diverse
responses for the criteria tested.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors have declared that no conflict of interests exist.
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