Changes of Stem Characteristics, Senescence Indexes and Yield and Quality of Wintering Rye under Different Populations

Yuetao Zuo,Xiaosong Ren,Ling Dong,Xueyue Zhang,Shiyu Zuo,Zhaoyue Liu,Jing Li

doi:10.3390/su13126876

Abstract

In response to the production crisis caused by a winter feed shortage due to the rapid development of the animal husbandry industry, winter rye 001 was selected to study differences in stalk and senescence characteristics in yield formation in cold regions. Five density treatments were established in a randomized design as 225 × 104 plant·hm−2 (D1), 275 × 104 plant·hm−2 (D2), 325 × 104 plant·hm−2 (D3), 375 × 104 plant·hm−2 (D4), and 425 × 104 plant·hm−2 (D5). Stem characteristics, SOD activity, POD activity, MDA content, and differences in yield and feeding quality under different population densities were analyzed. The plant height, center of gravity, and stem basal internode length showed an increasing trend with an increase in planting density. The stem wall thickness, diameter, strength, and lodging resistance indices decreased. At 275 × 104 plants·hm−2, the rye crude protein content was the highest while neutral washing fiber and acid washing fiber were the lowest, and feed quality was the best. With an increase in density, spike number, grain number per spike, and thousand-grain weight first increased and then decreased. We concluded that the yield and feeding quality were best when the basic seedling was at 275 × 104 plants hm−2.

Highlights

Rye (Secale cereale), an annual gramineous herbaceous plant, is resistant to environmental stress, which manifests in cold resistance, drought resistance, lodging resistance, and disease resistance [1,2]
There was no significant difference in plant height between the plants in the D5 and D4 density treatments; the difference was significant compared with the other density treatments (p < 0.05)
The length of each internode showed an increasing trend with an increase in planting density which was similar to the change trend in the plant height and the center of gravity height, which reached a peak in the D5 treatment

Summary

Introduction

Rye (Secale cereale), an annual gramineous herbaceous plant, is resistant to environmental stress, which manifests in cold resistance, drought resistance, lodging resistance, and disease resistance [1,2]. Rye is mainly distributed in Germany, Poland, and France and China’s Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, and Tibet regions. The plant grows with wide leaves and a high grass yield, which can be used as a livestock concentrate feed. Winter rye exhibits high nutritional value and planting it may effectively alleviate the production crisis caused by the shortage of feed in winter due to the current rapid development of the animal husbandry industry. In order to safely overwinter, wintering rye must be sown around September each year, which effectively improves the loss of topsoil and increases the coverage of ground vegetation in winter pastoral areas and has good applications for scientific research [4]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion