Grass Dry Matter Production Research Articles

Irrigation Management for Soil Salinity Control: Theories and Tests

AbstractThe steady‐state leaching theory and related concepts regarding soil salinity control were evaluated in view of the transient‐state theories presented and recent experimental results. Data from small plot experiments to establish the leaching requirement of nine crops and from a rhizotron study on the influence of irrigation frequency on soil salinity control agreed with theoretical, transient‐state predictions that consider water flow, salt transport, and water uptake by crop roots, simultaneously. Root water uptake was assumed to depend on matric (water content) and osmotic (soil salinity) potentials, and on a critical root‐water potential of about −0.3 MPa. The assumption that the major effect of soil salinity is a reduction in plant water uptake was substantiated. Results show water balance components (for nine crops irrigated several times each day and for grass irrigated with various combinations of quantity, quality, and frequency) deviated significantly from predictions based on the steady‐state leaching fraction equation. The deviation was attributed to an increase in soil‐water content and transpiration as irrigation applications increased; or conversely, an increase in soil‐water content as transpiration decreased because of increased soil salinity. The practical limitations of salinity control in irrigated agriculture based on the steady‐state leaching equation were evident even for high frequency irrigation where steady‐state conditions should be approached. Measured commercial yields and aboveground dry matter production compared well with yields computed on the assumption that relative crop yield is equivalent to relative transpiration. Both measured and computed results indicated that irrigation water quality and quantity, rather than irrigation frequency, influenced dry matter production of grass.

Dry matter production by a subtropical grass (Makarikari grass) grown in association with a temperate annual legume (barrel medic) and nitrogen fertilizer in southern Queensland

The effects of a temperate annual legume, barrel medic (Medicago truncatula) cv. Cyprus, and five levels of fertilizer nitrogen (N), from 0 to 400 kg/ha.year, on the dry matter (DM) production and N economy of Makarikari grass (Panicum coloratum var. makarikariense) cv. Pollock, were investigated in a cutting experiment between 1973 and 1979. Each year, N fertilizer on grass alone increased both DM production and N uptake, up to N application rates of 200 and 400 kg/ha.year respectively. The mean annual effect of medic was to increase DM production and N uptake of associated grass each year by 90 and 130% respectively, and of the grass-medic system by 230 and 530%, respectively, for fertilizer rates between 0 and 100 kg N/ha.year. The increased DM production of associated grass occurred in summer and autumn; grass DM production was suppressed in spring, probably by competition with the medic. A trend for the DM yield of grass grown without medic to decline with time was most evident in the treatment without N fertilizer; in the comparable grass-medic pasture, grass DM production was as great in the sixth year as in the first. Medic DM yield varied with winter season rainfall. When the study concluded, the amount of N in the soil (0-10 cm depth) was higher after grassmedic than grass alone, except at the highest level of N fertilizer application. It was estimated that medic had fixed about 71 kg N/ha.year.