Fodder Productivity of Flemingia Macrophylla under Different Planting Density, Defoliation Management and Fertilizer Application

R. P. Ghimire, K. P. Kayastha, N. R. Devkota, M. R. Tiwari

Volume 13 Issue 13

Global Journal of Science Frontier Researc

Flemingia macrophylla (Willd) Merril is a perennial leguminous shrub with higher potential of fodder use. The objective of the study was to identify its appropriate planting density,defoliation management, and fertilizer doses to the mature stands. The planting density experiment consisted of five treatments of different planting densities (15873, 18518, 22222, 27777 and 37037 plants ha-1) with four replications in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). Similarly, the defoliation management experiment was conducted in a 2x3 factorial combination using RCBD. The combinations of different levels of two factors; defoliation frequency (8 and 12 weeks interval) and defoliation intensity (0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 m defoliation height above the ground level), were used as treatments and replicated five times. Subsequent experiment was conducted on the three-year old mature stands of F. macrophylla for testing the treatments of five graded levels of phosphorus (P), viz. 0, 10, 30, 50 and 70 kg ha-1. Each level of P was combined with 30 kg N ha-1. The experiment was conducted in RCBD with four replications.