Variability of Meadow Fescue Accessions and Productivity and Quality of their Polycross Progenies

Abstract

The collection investigated included nineteen meadow fescue accessions, 16 wild populations, and 3 commercial cultivars. The first part of the experiment was performed in a plant nursery at a distance plant of plant 60x60 cm. The experiment was done as a randomized block design with 30 plants per accession. This part of the experiment aimed to determine values and variability for the studied traits (heading date, plant height, length of leaf and the number of generative and vegetative tillers per plant and dry matter yield per plant) in two productive years. Data processing was done by ANOVA analyses. The obtained results show that the studied accessions had significant within and among variability for all parameters. The number of generative tillers per plant, plant height and leaf length positively affected dry matter yield per plant. The highest dry matter yield per plant was observed for accessions: FP 1 and FP 4, but the best ratio between dry matter yield and number of vegetative tillers per plant, traits that influenced dry matter quality, was scored for accessions FP 8, FP 7, FP 3, FP 10 and FP 16. The second part of the trial investigated the productivity and biomass quality of the best 26 progenies selected from the polycross field and formed from the plant with the best performance from the nursery. They are tested in plots 5x2 m, as a randomized block design, in 3 replications. The most productive progenies with high biomass quality originated from accession FP 8, FP 3 and FP 13.