Effect of different levels of phosphorus application on forage yield and yield components of disc medic, Medicago tornata cv. Swani

Abstract

The effect of five levels of phosphorus on yield and yield components of disc medic, Medicago tornata cv. Swani were studied in a field experiment which was conducted on the fine sandy textured soil of the Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, Tripoli, Libya during 1983-84.

Plant height and fresh green weight per plant were not affected by the application of phosphorus whereas number of leaves per plant and forage yield/m were significantly affected by the phosphorus application. The fresh and dry forage yield increased as the phosphorus rate was increased from 0 to 44 Kg/ha., after which, in spite of increasing phosphorus rate to 88 kg/ha, no increase, but rather a decrease, in forage yield was ob-servad. The decrease was not significant in fresh green forage production. The maximum green forage (2124.50 gr/m) and dry forage (410 gr/m) yield was recorded by applying 44 Kg/ha of phosphorus. The treatment containing no phosphorus application gave the minimum fresh green forage (1571 gr) and dry forage (263 gr/m), respectively.