Defoliation effects on seasonal production and growth rate of cool-season grasses
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Authors: D. P. Belesky, and J. M. Fedders
Date: 1994
Journal: Agronomy Journal
Volume: 86
Number:
Pages: 38-45
Summary of Methods: This 3-year experiment in West Virginia was designed to determine the effects of repeated defoliation, based on canopy height, on the seasonal distribution of herbage mass and growth rates of cool-season grasses. The seasonal distribution of cool-season grass dry matter was influenced by defoliation regimes based on canopy height and intensity of removal (50 vs 75%). The grasses investigated had rapid and sustained increases in instantaneous growth rates when managed as hay in the early season, but when defoliated during the early season they had relatively low and constant instantaneous growth rates (IGR). This could be a result of culm elongation in the hay management, with movement of leaves into the harvest zone. Early-season IGR, in swards clipped throughout the early season, were substantially lower than those with canopies allowed to accumulate herbage during the period. High growth rates of prairie grass early in the study, were followed by stand degradation, regardless of defoliation treatment, and may indicate unsuitability for use in low-input or marginal environments. Autumn recovery of herbage production did not occur under any defoliation treatment.
Article Summary / Main Points: None
Vegetation Types:
MLRA Ecoregions:
Agrovoc Control Words: Riparian zones Rangelands Wildlife
Article Review Type: Refereed
Article Type: Experimental Research
Keywords: productivity, growth rates, cool-season grasses, orchardgrass, dactylis glomerata, tall fescue x perennial ryegrass hybrid, festuca arundinacea x lolium perenne, prairie grass, bromus willdenowii, defoliation
Annotation: Glyphosate was applied in early and mid-summer of 1988 to control weeds and volunteer grasses.,Plots were direct-drill-seeded at 25 kg pure live seed/ha in late summer of 1988.,A starter application of 25 kg of fertilizer was applied in early September of 1988. Half of the total annual N was applied in mid-March, with the remainder applied in early August each year. Treatments on each plot (subdivided into four subplots) were: Hay, hay cut in the early season, followed by removing 75% of a tall canopy; removing 50 and 75%, respectively, of a tall canopy.
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