Evaluation of Growth Indices and Quantitative and Qualitative Characteristics of Forage Amaranth in Comparison with Forage Millet

Drought is one of the major factors limiting productivity in agriculture and nutrition management, including the use of potash fertilizers, plays an important role in plant resistance to drought. In order to evaluate the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of forage amaranth in comparison with forage millet, a split factorial experiment was designed and conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications in 2016 and 2017 in Saadatshahr region of Fars province. In this experiment, three irrigation intervals (5, 10 and 15 days) were used as the main factor, potassium fertilizer (50, 100 and 150 kg.ha-1) and forage plants (amaranth and millet) as sub-plots. The results of mean comparison of two-year combined analysis showed that amaranth had significantly more height, stem diameter, inflorescence length, number of leaves per plant, dry forage yield, ash percentage, crude protein and carbohydrate content than millet. Increasing the irrigation interval reduced the height, stem diameter, inflorescence length, number of leaves per plant, 1000-seed weight, percentage of crude fiber, dry matter yield, ash percentage, and soluble carbohydrates. By increasing potassium fertilizer level, plant height, stem diameter, inflorescence length, number of leaves per plant, percentage of crude fiber, dry forage yield, ash percentage, crude protein percentage, ADF percentage and NDF percentage in the plant decreased. In general, it can be concluded that amaranth plant has higher yield and drought tolerance than millet and the application of 150 kg.ha-1 of potassium fertilizer can be recommended to achieve higher yield.