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Comparison of swathing and desiccation of borage (Borago officinalis) and estimation of optimum harvest stage
Author(s) -
SIMPSON M J A
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
annals of applied biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1744-7348
pISSN - 0003-4746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7348.1993.tb04077.x
Subject(s) - biology , desiccation , officinalis , botany , population , horticulture , agronomy , sociology , demography
Summary In trials of borage (Borago officinalis L.) between 1988 and 1991, swathing resulted in substantially higher yields than desiccation with diquat or glyphosate. Earlier harvest resulted in slightly lower seed oil content. Optimum swathing stage for uniform crops was estimated as that in which youngest flowers on apical cymes with shed or mature seed were the first to the third from the cyme base (i.e. stage 5,1 to 5,3). In crops with low plant population density, in which production of lowest branches is not suppressed, assessment of swathing stage is likely to be difficult and may require sampling from lower cymes.