Somayeh Karami; Hashem Hadi; Mehdi Tajbaksh; Seyed Ali Mohammad Modarres-Sanavy
Abstract
In order to study the effect of different levels of irrigation, nitrogen and zeolite onchlorophyll content, forage yield and quality of amaranth, a split plot factorial experiment was conducted as randomized complete block design with three replications at the Research Farm of Tarbiat Modarres University ...
Read More
In order to study the effect of different levels of irrigation, nitrogen and zeolite onchlorophyll content, forage yield and quality of amaranth, a split plot factorial experiment was conducted as randomized complete block design with three replications at the Research Farm of Tarbiat Modarres University during 2013 and 2014 growing seasons. Main factor was three irrigation regimes, irrigation after depleting 40, 60 and 75 percent of soil available waterand sub factor was the combination of the two factors: nitrogen levels 0, 80, 160 and 240 kg.h-1 and zeolite levels 0 and 10 ton.h-1. Results showed that increasing irrigation intervals, especially irrigation after depleting 75% of available water, decreased chlorophyll (37%), forage yield (40%), digestible dry matter (18%), crude protein (17%) and ash (16%) but increased neutral detergent fiber (16%) and acid detergent fiber (7%) compared to control irrigation treatments. Zeolite application under water deficit stress conditions increased chlorophyll, forage yield, digestible dry matter, crude protein and ash, and reduced NDF and ADF. Nitrogen consumption more than 80 kg.h-1 had no significant effect on forage dry yield and quality under soil water deficit conditions and application of zeolite; Therefore, Nitrogen application (80 kg.h-1) was sufficient to obtain suitable forage yield and quality of the amaranth with zeolite application.