Premium
Yield and Persistence from Mixtures of a Winter Hardy and a Verticillium Wilt Resistant Lucerne Cultivar
Author(s) -
Stout D. G.,
Acharya S. N.,
Hall J. W.,
Broersma K.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of agronomy and crop science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.095
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1439-037X
pISSN - 0931-2250
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-037x.1998.tb00365.x
Subject(s) - cultivar , verticillium wilt , biology , sowing , agronomy , verticillium dahliae , verticillium , hardiness (plants) , monoculture , yield (engineering) , persistence (discontinuity) , horticulture , materials science , geotechnical engineering , metallurgy , engineering
In British Columbia, Lucerne stand persistence is reduced by inadequate disease resistance, winter hardiness, or both. We evaluated the possibility that persistence could be improved by sowing mixtures of winter hardy and verticillium wilt (VW) resistant cultivars. Our hypothesis was that dry matter yield of mixtures of two Lucerne cultivars could be calculated simply from the proportion of each cultivar in the mixture and their yield in pure stand. A winter hardy cultivar, Beaver, was grown in mixtures with each of three VW (caused by Verticillium albo‐atrum Reinke & Berthier) resistant cultivars (WL316, Sparta, or Barrier) in proportions of 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1.0. The yield of a mixture of two cultivars could be calculated from the proportion of each cultivar in the seed mixture and their yields in monoculture. In the absence of a winter where severe injury to Lucerne stands occurred, the VW‐resistant cultivar Barrier yielded about 2 t ha −1 year −1 more than the more winter hardy Beaver.