Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Assistant Professor, Khorasan-e-razavi Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Mashhad, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Rangeland Research Division, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran
3 Researcher, Khorasan-e-razavi Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Mashhad, Iran
Abstract
In order to determine the appropriate season and method of rangeland planting of Onobrychis chorassanica Bunge., and providing conditions for increasing forage production of degraded rangelands in arid and semi-arid climates, two separate experiments were carried out in split plots in a randomized complete block design with four replications during the years 2013 to 2017 in Golestan preserved summer rangeland of Mashhad on the northern slope of the Binalood Mountains. The treatments were rangeland planting seasons (autumn and spring) and planting methods (seeding in pitting and in shallow grooves). In the first experiment, the mean comparisons of the combined analysis for two years showed that the emergence and seedlings establishments were 57.7% and 26.1%, in 2014-2015 growth season, respectively, were significantly higher than the 2013-2014 (21.5% and 10.4%). Results also indicated that the emergence and seedlings establishment percentage (58.8% and 26.8%) in the autumn season showed significant differences with spring (20.4% and 9.7%). Mean comparisons of rangeland planting methods had no significant difference in both growing seasons. The results of the second experiment showed that the seedlings establishment percentage (22.1%) in the 2nd year of establishment was significantly lower than (26.1%) comparing with the first year. Although establishment percentage in autumn season was increased by 2.7 times compared with spring season, but planting dates had no significant effect on leaves, stem and fruit dry matter yield. The planting method with pitting led to a significant increase in leaves, stem, fruit and total areal biomass yield with 2.2, 4.8, 4.2 and 11.2 gr plant -1, respectively, by 58, 33, 14 and 26%, compared to shallow groove planting method. The results of this study showed that autumn rangeland season is preferable to spring but seeding in shallow grooves compared to pitting is not significantly different in increasing the percentage of emergence and seedling establishment. However, seeding in pitting leads to improved forage and seed yield and ultimately production stability.
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