Investigation of Yield and Yield Components of Canary Seed Forage (Phalaris canariensis L.) in Response to Different Levels of Irrigation, Organic and Chemical Fertilizers and their integration

IntroductionCanary seed (Phalaris canariensis L.) is a forage plant from Poaceae family. This plant is drought tolerant. Canary seed is originally a native to Mediterranean region, which can be grown commercially in several parts of the word, especially in semi-arid conditions.
Increasing growth of population and lack of ability of pastures to satisfy the food requirement of animal has led to more interest in cultivating forage plants. In this regard, Canary seed having properties such as high yield per unit area, high tillering power, very fast growth and appropriate nutritional value, is of considerable importance and its cultivation development especially in arid and semi-arid regions can be effective in providing part of the country forage needs.
Optimum water requirement is considered as one the important factors to obtain a high growth and yield of the product. On the other hand, Iran is located in arid and semi-arid climate region of the world . Therefore, determination of appropriate amount of irrigation water can lead to the improvement of water use efficiency and preventing the water loss.
In order to achieve a high yield and desirable quality in plants one of the important requirements in agricultural planning is the evaluation of different systems of plant feeding. By applying an appropriate method in soil productivity, in addition to protecting the environment, optimization of water usage, reduction of erosion and protection of biodiversity can be increased. Therefore, gradually replacing chemical fertilizers with biological and organic fertilizers will result in providing feed requirements of plants, improvement of physical, chemical and biological conditions of soil and reduction of adverse environmental effects resulting from application of chemical inputs. The aim of this research was to study the effects of deficit irrigation and fertilizer management based on sole chemical and organic fertilizers or their integrated application on the yield and yield components of the forge of canary seed plant on the path of sustainable agriculture.
Materials and MethodsTo investigate the effects of different levels of irrigation water and integrated management of chemical and organic fertilizers on growth indices, yield and yield components of the Canary seed forage, an experiment was conducted as split plot based on a randomized complete block design with three replications at Agricultural Research Station, College of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran during growing season of 2013-2014.
Different regimes of irrigation were in three levels (60, 80 and 100 percent of water requirement) in main plots and fertilizer treatments were in six levels (chemical fertilizer, vermicompost fertilizer, manure, chemical fertilizer vermicompost fertilizer, chemical fertilizer manure and control) in sub-plots. The amounts of treatment of nitrogen chemical fertilizer (200 kg ha-1 of urea source and 150 kg ha-1 of triple super phosphate) were applied in corresponding plots. The amounts of manure fertilizers (30 ton ha-1) and vermicompost (6 ton. ha-1) were determined and applied based on recommended amount of nitrogen. Water requirement of canary seed was estimated by the OPTIWAT software in continental condition of Mashhad . The volume of irrigation water for irrigation treatments was estimated based on 60, 80 and 100 percent of water requirement and was recorded as applied in each round of irrigation.
In order to harvest the forage in the emergence stage of 50% spikes of the Canary seed, 10 plants per plot were randomly chosen before harvest and traits such as per plant height and the number of tillers were recorded. Then, considering marginal effects from a surface equivalent to 1.4 m-2, plants were harvested from the height 3-5 cm and the weight of forage produced in each plot was measured and determined by weighing. Then, the harvested forage was transferred to the laboratory and two samples with approximate weight of 500 g were picked by quarter sampling. After weighing one of samples, it was transferred to the oven with the temperature of 75°C and after 48 hours the dry weight of samples were measured and determined by the balance with 0.001 g resolution. The second sample was separated into yield components of forage including leaves, stem and reproductive organs of plant. They were placed individually in the oven with the temperature of 75°C for 48 hours and then the yield components of the forage were determined.
Finally, resulted data were analyzed by the software SAS ver. 9.1 and mean comparison based on Duncan multiple-range test was conducted by the software MSTAT-C in the probability level of 5 percent.
Results and DiscussionExperimental results indicated that the effect of the different levels of irrigation water on the most traits examined except the percentage of leaf to the total dry content of canary seed was significant. The maximum yield of wet and dry forage was observed for irrigation regimes of 100 and 80 percent water requirement with 24.7 and 6.51 ton ha-1, respectively. In addition, the traits including plant height, the number of tiller in per plant, the spike percentage, the yield of wet and dry forage and forage protein also underwent manure treatment. The maximum yield of wet forage was obtained from vermicompost and animal manure treatment, the minimum yield was related to treatment without manure (control). The maximum yield of dry forage was observed for vermicompost and animal manure. Thus, consuming vermicompost or animal manure and sometimes their integration with chemical fertilizers will have a more significant yield. Furthermore, using deficit irrigation method, with 80 percent water requirement, in addition to saving water, desirable yield per unit area can be achieved.