FERTILE TILLER PRODUCTION AND SEED YIELD IN MEADOW FESCUE (FESTUCA PRATENSIS L.)

Abstract

The fertile tiller production and seed yields of spaced plants of meadow fescue varieties were found to vary widely with the time of sowing, particularly in the first harvest year. The benefit of early spring sowing is indicated in the total productivity over two harvest years.Varieties differed in the amount of heading in the seeding year; the American type was the most prolific. This had a bearing on the relative yields in the first harvest year, since many of the potentially productive tillers of this variety were vifasted through the plants becoming ripe to flower in the seeding year and, therefore, the rate of tiller production was checked. Competition within the plant appeared to be the cause of tillers remaining vegetative when conditions otherwise seemed suitable for generative development. The smaller-sized plants gave a higher proportional increase of fertile tillers at harvest than would be expected from the vegetative tillers counted in April, while at the same time there was a negative relationship at harvest from plants which had a very high number of vegetative tillers.Infertility as reflected in a poor seed set at the time of harvest is a serious wastage of potential production in meadow fescue and, in selecting for superior seed output, breeders need to take this factor into consideration.The 1000-seed weight varied between varieties, the pasture type being inferior to the two hay types.

FERTILE TILLER PRODUCTION AND SEED YIELD IN MEADOW FESCUE (FESTUCA PRATENSIS L.)

“…He showed that tillers which originate early have a higher seed potential. His findings were confirmed by Lewis (8,9) in studies with meadow fescue; he showed that tillers present on the plant in December produced larger heads with a greater frequency of spikelets than tillers originating later; moreover these older tillers also produced more and better quality seeds. All spring-cutting treatments tend to remove or damage the older tillers, and the severity of the effect on seed crops depends on the susceptibility of these shoots to damage.…”

“…Earlier studies (9) showed that a lower seed-setting capacity is linked to the late-fiowering characteristic of^ S53 and this would also contribute to its lower yield in the present investigation.…”

Effect of management factors on tiller dynamics in tall fescue: Numbers of tillers reaching reproductive maturity

“…A reduction in mature reproductive tiller proportions with later close-down dates has previously been reported for fescue and other cool season grasses (Lambert 1966a(Lambert , 1966bLewis 1969;Watson & Watson 1982). The response to close-down date in both seasons is likely to have been due to the removal of reproductive tiller apices by cutting, resulting in the death Figure 1 The average number of tillers per quadrat within each tiller age group to reach reproductive maturity (averaged across all treatments).…”

“…The effect of N may be expressed through the number of reproductive tillers produced, spikelet size, seed weight and lodging (Evans 1955;Evans 1959;Jones 1953;Kroth et al 1977). Defoliation or close-down date has been shown to have a drastic effect on the number of reproductive tillers which reach maturity and consequently on seed yields (Lewis 1969;Watson & Watson 1982;Brown et al 1988). The identification of suitable close-down dates for potential seedproducing areas is essential if seed is to be successfully produced.…”

FERTILE TILLER PRODUCTION AND SEED YIELD IN MEADOW FESCUE (FESTUCA PRATENSIS L.)

“…The effect of date of sowing on the seed crop was the subject of an earlier paper (16): this study continues the series and covers the influence of drill spacing on early growth and on fertile-tiller production in meadow fescue. The 240 influence of the timing of applying N in the spring was also examined, particularly in view of Anslow's observation (1) that seed yield is strongly infiuenced by both density and N manuring.…”