Standardization of Seed Production in fodder Berseem (Trifolium alexandrinum L.) through Sowing Dates and Foliar Nutrition

Author: P. Swathi, B. Jyothi Basu, N. Sambasiva Rao and V. Saida Naik

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Abstract

Scarcity of green fodder and low seed setting forces the farmers not to prefer for seed production. Weather extremities like unbalanced or untimely rains or high speed winds also affected seed setting. All these extremities lead to scarcity of berseem seed production in Andhra Pradesh. Maintaining the proper sowing time and time of last cut for fodder and for leaving the crop for seed production may help in keeping the balance between vegetative and reproductive phases for high seed yield. Therefore, optimum sowing time and last cut is a very deciding factor to achieve maximum green fodder and seed yield. To tackle these problems an experiment was conducted during Rabi season 2018-19 & 2019-20 at Agricultural Research Station, Jangamaheswarapuram, Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh, India with an aim to standardize the seed production in fodder berseem through sowings dates and foliar nutrition. Among the four dates of sowings, sowing during first week of October performed better in terms of plant height, number of leaves plant-1, number of heads plant-1, head length, number of seedshead-1, number of shoot plant-1 and seed yield. Among the foliar nutrition spraying of 2% MAP solution at flowering stage recorded the highest yield, which differs significantly from remaining three treatments. There was no significant interaction between dates of sowing and foliar nutrition for yield & yield attributing characters.

Keywords

Berseem, Seed yield, Foliar spray, Urea

Conclusion

Berseem is regarded as 'the king of fodder' due to its increased production capacity, succulence, palatability, nutritional content, and constant supply of fodder over several months. Sowing of berseem in first week of October along with spraying of 2% MAP at the time of flowering good for getting highest yield & yield attributing characters followed by sowing at third week of October. Sowing done beyond the November may not good for seed germination due to low temperatures coincidence with germination stage. Taking of Berseem seed production will be good in terms of returns per rupee investment in palnadu region in place of normal sown rabi crops like paddy/blackgram/bengalgram. But, still there were some bottleneck problems for production, storage and marketing of berseem seed. Generally the crop is allowed to take 3-4 green forage cuttings after that last cutting will be left for seed production means it will take 250-270 days. In this investigation we conducted experiment without allowing for green forage cuttings with main focus on seed production than forage production, then the crop matured within 118- 140 days.

References

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How to cite this article

P. Swathi, B. Jyothi Basu, N. Sambasiva Rao and V. Saida Naik (2023). Standardization of Seed Production in fodder Berseem (Trifolium alexandrinum L.) through Sowing Dates and Foliar Nutrition. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(9): 727-732.