Abstract
The study was undertaken in greenhouse to investigate the effects of industrial waste on seed germination, speed of germination and
fungal activities. Three types of industrial waste (i.e. fiber industry sludge, chemical industry sludge and marble waste powder) were
used for this experiment. Six treatments were made using 20g quantities of industrial waste in each treatments. The treatments were
made, as control, T1= fiber industry sludge, T2= fiber industry sludge-ash, T3= chemical industry sludge, T4= chemical industry
sludge-ash and T5= marble waste powder. Two series of plants species were selected, including five crops species Vigna radiata (L.)
Wilczek, Pisum sativum L., Vigna mungo (L.)Hepper, Phaseolus lunatus L. and Lens culineris Medic, while five wild (or naturalized)
plant species Cynodon dactylon (L)Pers., Azadirachta indica (L.) A. Juss., Parkinsonia aculeata L., Prosopis Juliflora (Swartz) DC.
and Lactuca remotiflora DC. The germination was recorded on alternate days. The soil samples from each treatment were collected to
check the fungal activities. The results revealed that all plant species were suppressed in all the treatments compared with controls.
The percentage of seed germination and speed of germination of Phaseolus lunatus and Lactuca remotiflora were suppressed in all
treatments. Two fungal species Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus were recorded from all treatments. No significant differences
were found between these two species and among all treatments.
