Publication Date

1985

Location

Kyoto Japan

Description

Italian rye grass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) is a summer annual in the Atlantic Provinces of Canada and reseeding in spring is necessary for maintaining productive swards. Intensive cultivation and seeding method of Italian ryegrass was compared with four direct seeding techniques in four three-year experiments on a Charlottetown fine sandy loam soil, at two sites, on Prince Edward Island. Dry matter yields of ryegrass were similar for direct seeding and seeding cultivated seed bed for the first two years. Some yield advantage was recorded when direct seeded ryegrass followed barley in the third year. Total nitrogen concentration in tissue was similar for all treatments in the first year, but in the second and third years total N was generally greater with cultivation than with direct seeding. Although dry matter yield of permanent pasture was greater than that of ryegrass the nitrogen produced ha-1 was similar for both. Measurements of soil resistance, porosity, proportion of macro-pores (diameter> 50 µ,m) and pore continuity, used as indices of soil compaction, did not show any adverse effect of the seeding methods on soil structure.

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Effect of Italian Ryegrass Establishment Methods of Yield, Herbage Quality and Soil Compaction

Kyoto Japan

Italian rye grass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) is a summer annual in the Atlantic Provinces of Canada and reseeding in spring is necessary for maintaining productive swards. Intensive cultivation and seeding method of Italian ryegrass was compared with four direct seeding techniques in four three-year experiments on a Charlottetown fine sandy loam soil, at two sites, on Prince Edward Island. Dry matter yields of ryegrass were similar for direct seeding and seeding cultivated seed bed for the first two years. Some yield advantage was recorded when direct seeded ryegrass followed barley in the third year. Total nitrogen concentration in tissue was similar for all treatments in the first year, but in the second and third years total N was generally greater with cultivation than with direct seeding. Although dry matter yield of permanent pasture was greater than that of ryegrass the nitrogen produced ha-1 was similar for both. Measurements of soil resistance, porosity, proportion of macro-pores (diameter> 50 µ,m) and pore continuity, used as indices of soil compaction, did not show any adverse effect of the seeding methods on soil structure.