Effect of foliar fertilization with Total Care on some morphological traits and forage productivity in Prista 5 alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) variety

摘要

The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of Total Care organic mineral product application on the main morphological traits - natural plant height and grass stand density, expressed by stem number per m2 and on the forage productivityin Prista 5 alfalfa variety.The study was carried out from 2014 to 2017 at the experimental field of Institute of Agriculture and Seed Science "Obraztsov chiflik" - Rousse. The experiment included a control (untreated variant) and variant with Total Care product application. Alfalfa was grown without irrigation and green mass harvesting was carried out in early flowering stage.The summarized results showed a different effect of Total Care, on the morphological traits studied and on the forage productivity, both in regrowths andyears. Total Care foliar fertilizer stimulated the development of significantly higher plants and had a slight positive impact on potential for stem formation. The foliar application of Total Care had a clearly expressed positive effect on dry matter yield. It was found that the stimulating effect of the product on the productive potential decreased in each subsequent growing season. The obtained results give a reason to consider that the phenotypic expression of plants height and stems number morphological traits and of the genetic ability for productivity is a result of the complex relationship genotype x foliar fertilization x environment conditions.