Effect of nitrogen fertilizers on growth and yield of three forage genotypes

Abstract

An experiment was conducted on the demonstration farm of the College of Agricultural Studies Sudan University of Science and technology Shambat during season 2013. The objective of the experiment was to study the effect of different does of nitrogen fertilizer as 0 kg/ha(0N ), 86 kg/ha (1N), 129 kg/ha(2N) and 172 kg/ha(3N) on three cultivars forage cultivars sorghum (Abu sabein, Sudan grass, and maize).The design used was the Randomized Complete Block Design (a factorial) with three replications. The parameter studied were plant height, number of leaves, stem diameter, leaf area, dry weight and fresh weight. The result revealed that the cultivars showed different response to the different levels of nitrogen fertilizer . The nitrogen fertilizer significantly affected the number of leaves , leaf area, fresh and dry weight. The nitrogen dose 129 kg/ha (2N) gave best results compared to the other doses. Abu sabein showed the highest response on fresh weight, dry weight and leaf area ,where as Sudan grass showed good response from stem diameter and plant height. It can be concluded that Abu sabein showed higher response to the different doses of nitrogen fertilizer ,Nitrogen at dose 129 kg/ha (N) was the best dose for the three cultivars of grass forage.