Growth and Yield of Two Forage Legumes of Contrasting Growth Habits Under Shade
A study was conducted to evaluate the responses of two forage legumes Arachis pintoi Krapov. & D. Gregory (Arachis) and Stylosanthes guianensis (Aublet) Sw. (Stylo), of contrasting growth habits (prostrate and erect type) to levels of shade. Treatments used over three experiments included thr...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2004
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/6154/1/FP_2004_36.pdf |
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| Summary: | A study was conducted to evaluate the responses of two forage legumes Arachis
pintoi Krapov. & D. Gregory (Arachis) and Stylosanthes guianensis (Aublet) Sw.
(Stylo), of contrasting growth habits (prostrate and erect type) to levels of shade.
Treatments used over three experiments included three radiation regimes (30, 50
and 100% light transmission), two cutting intervals (6 and 8 week), two cutting
heights (5 and 10 cm) and the removal of residual leaves on yield and growth of the
plants.
Both species had reduced yield with increased shading but Stylo showed greater
reduction in yield with shade compared to Arachis. Under fill sunlight, Stylo
performed better giving a 43 percent greater yield than Arachis. On the other hand,
Arachis yielded 6 percent more than Stylo under both shaded treatments, indicating
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that the prostrate habit made the plant more tolerant to shading. Arachis also had a
greater leaflstem ratio, and better nodulation under shade than Stylo. The better
nodulation of Arachis under shade compared to Stylo may have attributed to the
greater shade tolerance of Arachis.
Both legumes were affected by cutting interval; the longer cutting interval of 8
weeks gave higher yield than the 6 weeks cutting interval (increase of 20.7 percent
for Arachis and 36.5 percent for Stylo). On the other hand, nutritive quality was
better for both legumes with the shorter cutting interval. Increased frequency of
cutting reduced plant persistence of Stylo by 8.8 percent while that of Arachis
increased by 26 percent, showing that the legumes with the prostrate habit is more
tolerant to frequent cutting.
Cutting height had significant effect on yield of Stylo and Arachis under shading,
both giving higher yield under 10 cm cutting height than 5 cm cutting height. Stylo
showed a greater reduction in yield (40%) than Arachis (17.1%) with the lower
cutting height. This proved that the prostrate habit made the plant more tolerant of
low cutting height than the upright habit.
The presence of residual leaves was more important for regrowth of Arachis than
for Stylo. In Stylo, plant regrowth was influenced by cutting height irrespective of
the presence or absence of residual leaves. On the other hand, in Arachis, plants
cut at the low cutting height gave similar regrowth with those at the higher cutting
height as long as residual leaves are retained.
In conclusion, the upright legume, Stylo was less tolerant to shading than the
prostrate legume Arachis. The latter should be a more suitable legume for use
under the integration system where forages are grown under the plantation crops.
Arachis is also more tolerant to intensive defoliation as shown by its better ability
to withstand shorter cutting interval and lower cutting height than Stylo. |
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