Weed control is a crucial factor for maintaining establishment and herbage production in dwarf variety of late-heading type （DL） napiergrass （Pennisetum purpureum Schumach） in southern Kyushu, Japan. This study wa...Weed control is a crucial factor for maintaining establishment and herbage production in dwarf variety of late-heading type （DL） napiergrass （Pennisetum purpureum Schumach） in southern Kyushu, Japan. This study was aimed to verify the weeding-effect on dry matter （DM） production in the farm level and to examine the effect of several weed control, i.e. mixed sowing of annual setaria （abbreviated as S）, which has no regrowth ability after stem-elongation, paper-mulching （as P） and hand-weeding （as ＋W）, compared with no-weeding （as -W） on DM yield and quality of DL napiergrass in two years. Weed control practices significantly （P 〈 0.05） promoted several plant growth attributes in DL napiergrass, compared with no-weeding both in the farm and experimental levels. Paper-mulchidng （P-W or P＋S-W） had highest yields among several practices in both years. Setaria-sowing ha a partially mitigating effect of weed damage on DM production of DL napiergrass, while additive DM gain from setaria could compensate the yield decrease in DL napiergrass and reduce herbicide cost. Neither digestibility nor crude protein was affected by any weed control in either year. Thus, paper-mulching and annual setaria-sowing could be effective alternative practices for weed control of this species.展开更多
文摘Weed control is a crucial factor for maintaining establishment and herbage production in dwarf variety of late-heading type （DL） napiergrass （Pennisetum purpureum Schumach） in southern Kyushu, Japan. This study was aimed to verify the weeding-effect on dry matter （DM） production in the farm level and to examine the effect of several weed control, i.e. mixed sowing of annual setaria （abbreviated as S）, which has no regrowth ability after stem-elongation, paper-mulching （as P） and hand-weeding （as ＋W）, compared with no-weeding （as -W） on DM yield and quality of DL napiergrass in two years. Weed control practices significantly （P 〈 0.05） promoted several plant growth attributes in DL napiergrass, compared with no-weeding both in the farm and experimental levels. Paper-mulchidng （P-W or P＋S-W） had highest yields among several practices in both years. Setaria-sowing ha a partially mitigating effect of weed damage on DM production of DL napiergrass, while additive DM gain from setaria could compensate the yield decrease in DL napiergrass and reduce herbicide cost. Neither digestibility nor crude protein was affected by any weed control in either year. Thus, paper-mulching and annual setaria-sowing could be effective alternative practices for weed control of this species.
