Effect of Cutting Intervals on Growth, Yield, Quality and Seeds production of Three Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) Cultivars.

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out at Sudan University of Science and Technology, College of Agricultural Studies, in the experimental farm, Shambat, during the period from 30- 12- 2010 to 25-10- 2011.The objective of this research was to study the effect of frequency of cutting intervals in three alfalfa cultivars for some growth, yield, seeds yield and quality characters. The experiment design was a randomized complete block design with four replications. The treatments were arranged in spilt plot arrangements. The treatments consisted of three alfalfa cultivars (Hegazi, Sirivar and Cuf101) and three cutting intervals (20, 25 and 30 days). Cutting intervals were assigned as main plots and alfalfa cultivars were assigned as sub plots. Seven successive cuts were conducted and from them nine growth, yield, seeds yield 11 and quality characters were measured. The characters included (plant height, number of leaves\plant, forage fresh yield, forage dry yield, number of pods\plant, number of seeds\pod, seeds yield\plant, crude protein and crude fiber. The statistical analysis of variance revealed significant effect for cutting intervals, cultivars and their interaction for most of studied characters. For forage fresh yield significant results were attained in the 5th cut for cutting intervals and in 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th cuts for the cultivars. For forage dry yield significant results were attained in the 5th cut for cutting intervals and in 5th and 6th cuts for the cultivars. The cultivar (Hegazi) scored the highest fresh (5.13T\Ha) and dry (1.81T\Ha) forage yield for the 25 days and 30 days cutting intervals, respectively. المستخل