GROWTH AND NUTRITION OF TIMOTHY (PHLEUM PRATENSE)

Abstract

All tillers of timothy (Phleum pratense) growing in sand culture were labelled at weekly intervals. At each of eighteen dates between June and December a sample of plants was harvested, and dry weight and leaf area were determined for each group of tillers.Tiller production was continuous throughout the experiment. Only those tillers which appeared before the end of July were able to form inflorescences, but among them the proportion of tillers with ears decreased with increasing lateness of origin.Dry weight per plant increased rapidly for the first 14 weeks, and then did not change significantly until the end of the experiment. The flowering tillers lost dry weight after seed maturation; vegetative tillers, although smaller in size, continued to increase in number and weight. Dry weight per inflorescences was greatest in the main stem and decreased in subsequent tillers.Leaf area per plant rose to a maximum soon after ear emergence and then declined, largely because the loss in leaf surface sustained by the flowering tillers was not offset by a corresponding increase in the vegetative tillers. Leaf area ratio decreased at first rapidly but later more gradually, while net assimilation rate was relatively high until maximum leaf area was almost attained, but then fell continuously to negligible values by October. Relative growth rate decreased throughout the experiment.Initially the growth of the plant was largely determined by the flowering tillers in which, in close resemblance to the cereal plant, leaf area ratio and relative growth rate declined continuously. Tillers which did not flower were successively smaller in size and, because of their later origin, were exposed to less favourable environmental conditions by the time they had increased sufficiently in number to affect the growth of the plant.