EFFECT OF PLANT AGE AT HARVESTING ON FORAGE YIELD AND QUALITY OF MILLET (Penisetum americanum, L.) IN SANDY SOIL | ||||
Journal of Soil Sciences and Agricultural Engineering | ||||
Article 2, Volume 29, Issue 2, February 2004, Page 967-974 PDF (869.28 K) | ||||
Document Type: Original Article | ||||
DOI: 10.21608/jssae.2004.240807 | ||||
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Author | ||||
T.K. Abdel-Aziz | ||||
Forage Crops Research Department, FCRI, ARC, Giza, Egypt | ||||
Abstract | ||||
The present field investigation was carried out to study the effect of plant age at cutting on yield and quality of forage millet (cv.Shandwil-1) grew on newly reclaimed sandy soil at Ismailia Agricultural Research Station, ARC. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with four replications .The study included four plant ages at cutting represented by 60, 80, 100 and 120 cm plant height. The trail was conducted during the summer season of the year 2000 and 2001. Significant differences were found among the four different plant ages at cutting and the results showed that cutting at plant height of 120 cm caused a significant increase of fresh yield, dry yield, crude fiber and ash; also the same treatment gave the lowest values of toxic components (oxalic acid and alkaloids). On the other hand, cutting at 60 cm plant height gave the highest values of crude protein and TON, while the same treatment gave the highest values of toxic components (oxalic acid and alkaloids). Also there were no significant differences between cutting at 100 and 120 cm plant height on all chemical composition, TON and alkaloids. Insignificant differences between 100 and 120 cm plant height may assure that cutting at 120 cm plant height could be recommended to give high yield of low toxic chemical components. While cutting at 60 cm height will save 54 days of the summer growing season to grow early winter crop as berseem and obtain one or two cuts more than late planting. | ||||
Keywords | ||||
Forage millet. sandy soil. yield; chemical composition and toxic chemical components | ||||
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