Abstract
The impacts of fertilization regimes and stubble heights in signal grass cv. Basilisk pastures were evaluated during latespring and summer in Brazil. Liming and N, P and K fertilization were applied to generate gradients in soil fertility tomaintain soil base saturations around 35%, 50% and 65%, increase soil P concentration and the proportion of K in soilcation exchange capacity, combined with two stubble heights of 10 and 15 cm. Herbage accumulation was not affectedby fertilization regimes and stubble height reaching 10 t/ha of dry matter during the growing season. Cutting at 10cm maximizes the leaf mass and leaf area index and decreases dead material mass without the need of high soil basesaturation and NPK fertilization rates to sustain plant growth. However, this stubble height required longer regrowthperiods to attain 95% of light interception (LI95%). A stubble height of 15 cm is preferred when short regrowth periods are required. The canopy height at the point of LI95% does not change with fertilization regimes, but the LI95% is reached at different canopy heights in late spring and summer in signal grass pastures. The adoption of a moderate fertilization regime is recommended as a strategy to obtain an equitable forage distribution between late spring and summer.
Highlights
The canopy height at the point of LI95% does not change with fertilization regimes, but the LI95% is reached at different canopy heights in late spring and summer in signal grass pastures
There were no significant effects of stubble height or significant interactions between fertilization regimes and stubble height (P>0.05) for the soil parameters
Dead material mass (DMM) at the post-harvest stage was affected only by season of the year (P=0.0001), with higher values observed in summer, corresponding to 41.3% of the forage mass (FM) compared with late spring, for which the proportion was 32.4%
Summary
Its tolerance to low fertility soils, which has allowed it to spread over a diversity of ecosystems, has led to mismanagement and use of fertilization rates below the minimum requirement to sustain optimum growth rates (Pereira et al 2018b). This has contributed to the large expanses of degraded grasslands in Brazilian ecosystems (Valle et al 2000)
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