Abstract

CASTILLO-MESTRE, Roelis; BETANCOURT-BAGUE, Tania; TORAL-PEREZ, Odalys C  and  IGLESIAS-GOMEZ, Jesús M. Influence of different planting frames on the establishment and production of Tithonia diversifolia. Pastos y Forrajes [online]. 2016, vol.39, n.2, pp.89-93. ISSN 0864-0394.

A study was conducted in order to evaluate the influence of three planting frames (A: 0,50 m x 1,0 m; B: 0,75 m x 1,0 m and C: 1,0 m x 1,0 m) on the establishment and production of Tithonia diversifolia, for which a randomized block design was used with three treatments and four repetitions. The study was conducted in an area of a commercial dairy farm of the Isle of Youth, Cuba, on an Alitic soil of low clayey activity, which was prepared with animal draught and fertilized with cattle manure at a rate of 2 t/ha. For planting cuttings were used with an age between 85 and 95 days, and a length of 0,50 cm; they were buried by one of their ends, in an inclined way. The establishment cut was made at 110 days. The evaluated indicators were: sprouting, plant height, number of branches and dry matter production of leaves and stems with less than 6 mm of diameter. Treatment C exceeded the other two (p d» 0,05) in the variables growth and establishment, with 92,4 % of sprouting and 20,67 branches. The highest annual and seasonal dry matter production (p d» 0,05) was also obtained in treatment C (13,52; 9,1 and 4,42 t DM/ha per year, in the rainy season and dry season, respectively). It is concluded that the optimum planting frame for the production of the species under the conditions of the territory is 1 m x 1 m.

Keywords : Animal feeding; biomass; sprouting.

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