Effect of date of sampling and plant density upon size and digestibility of reproductive tillers of Lolium perenne L.

Summary

Evaluation of forage germplasm digestibility is an important factor in screening programmes. The major problems involve the relevance of estimations made in spaced plants to plot performance, the effect of maturity, leaf: stem ratio and the choice of plant organ to be analysed. The use of stems of reproductive tiller proved successful in Lolium multiflorum. In the present experiment the effect of dates of sampling (date 1=28/6; date 2=5/7; date 3=12/7/83) and of plant densities (spaced plants and plots) on the digestibility of reproductive tillers of L. perenne cv. Marta 23 days after ear emergence was evaluated. After harvesting, the following characters were recorded on each tiller: tiller length and diameter, and spike and flag leaf length. Leaf blades and sheaths were then removed, the tillers dried and milled individually, and the ‘in vitro’ digestibility assessed. The data were analysed by Analysis of Variance, Principal Components Analysis and Numerical Classification followed by a study of how the variables contributed to the derived group structure. Results: I-Plots: digestibility values were 63.4, 60.3 and 56.6% (P<0.01), respectively, for the sampling dates 1, 2 and 3. The Cramer Value (0.41) shows some correlation between tiller size and digestibility. Tillers from date 3 tend to be smaller than the others but the separation is not very clear. II-Spaced plants: digestibility values were 63.2, 60.0 and 60.8%, respectively, for dates 1, 2 and 3. Analysis of variance showed differences (P<0.01) between dates and also between genotypes. The Cramer Value (0.23) shows less correlation between tiller size and digestibility: however, tillers from dates 1 and 3 are clearly separated on the basis of size. Tillers from date 3 being smaller, date 2 tillers are located in between those from dates 1 and 3. III-Plots and single plants combined: Tillers from plots are larger than tillers from spaced plants in sampling dates 2 and 3. The Cramer Value for digestibility (0.14) is the lowest one. The results indicate differences in size and digestibility of reproductive tillers of L. perenne when contrasting situations are being compared, which suggest influence of environmental conditions upon the characters evaluated in the experiment. The differences are sufficiently high so that the use of this technique, when populations of L. perenne with wide variation in flowering dates are being evaluated, is not recommended.