CUTTING ABILITY AND GROWTH OF THREE COVER CROPS [ ARACHIS PINTOI (L.) KRAPOV & W.C. GREG. ARACHIS REPENS (L.) HANDRO DESMODIUMADSCENDENS (SW.) DC.] IN NURSERY

In the search for alternative practices to the excessive use of herbicides for control of weediness, strategies based on the domestication and multiplication of cover crops are more and more explored. The propagation by cuttingof these plants have been the subject of numerous studies because of unavailability andcost-prohibitive of their seeds. The aim of this study was to compare the growthandcuttingabilityofA. repens, A. pintoï and D.adscendens. These cover plants were propagated by cutting in coir and put on raised bamboo clays with shade, in greenhouse. For each specie, parameters of vegetative recovery and growth were assessed. The results reported that recovery abilities were most important toA. pintoï (89.35%) and A. repens (86.39%). However, plant growth was better for D. adscendens, with a vigour index more than double with that ofboth theother species. The results obtained show that these three cover crop species are relatively easy to propagate by cutting in nursery.D. adscendens and A. repens are potentially usable in large scaleas cover cropstocontrol weeds in agricultural parcels.