Effect of seeding rates on the herbage production of disc medic (Medicago tomato) cv. Swani

Abstract

he effect of seeding rate on the forage yield components of disc medic (Medicago tornata) cv. Swani was studied during 1981-82 and 1982-83 at the Experimental Farm of Faculty of Agriculture, Tripoli, Libya.

The forage and all the forage yield component except plant length were significantly affected by seeding rates during 1982-83 whereas during 1981-82, only numbers of plants/m2 and fresh green weight of individual plants were significantly affected by seeding rates. The fresh green as well as oven dried forage yield (tons/ha) was increased by increasing seed rate. But the fresh green and oven dried forage yield (gr./plant) on individual plant basis decreased as the seeding rate was increased. The lowest (5.96 tons/ha in 1981-82 and 2.62 tons/ha in 1982-83) and highest (6.85 tons/ha in 1981-82 and 5.83 tons/ha in 1982-83) fresh green forage yield was obtained by sowing 5 and 20 Kg seed/ha, respectively. Similarly the lowest (1.78 tons/ha in 1981-82 and 0.91 tons/ha in 1982-83) and highest (2.39 tons/ha in 1981-82 and 2.15 tons/ha in 1982-83) oven dried forage yield was obtained at 5 and 20 Kg/ha seeding rate, respectively. But on the individual plant basis, the fresh green weight decreased from 7 to 1 gr. in 1981-82 and from 3.66 to 1.50 gr. in 1982-83 as the seeding rate was increased from 5 to 20 g/ha. Similarly the oven dried weight per plant was also decreased from 2.09 to 0.74 gr. in 1981-82 and from 1.28 to 0.35 gr. in 1982-83 when the seeding rate was increased from 5 to 20 Kg/ha, respectively. The plant length was also increased by increasing seeding rate but this increase was not significant.