Yield of Elymus elongatus and Secale cereanum on marginal soils in Central Europe

Abstract

This research was focused on a production potential of tall wheatgrass (TW) and perennial rye (PR) grown in marginal and contrasting soil climatic conditions under the following mineral nutrition: (a) intensive nutrition of 245.0 kg/ha NPK, (b) semi-intensive nutrition of 122.5 kg/ha NPK and (c) untreated control of 0.0 kg/ha NPK. The large-scale pilot field experiments with two varieties of TW: Szarvasi-1 and Alkar as PR: Kriszta and Gergő were carried out on 4 research sites during 4 years (2016/17 to 2019/20). Despite the contrasting soil conditions, yields were variously affected by (i) nutrition, (ii) site, (iii) variety and (iv) year (the order based on their F-ratios). A dry matter (DM) yield of 5.29 t/ha on average was found, it ranged from 0.01 to 13.46 t/ha. Average - minimal - maximal variety yields were as follows: Szarvasi-1 6.01 - 1.05 - 13.46 t/ha, Alkar 5.86 - 0.62 - 12.90 t/ha, Kriszta 5.06 - 0.01 - 13.21 t/ha and Gergő 4.25 - 0.05 - 10.60 t/ha. Under intensive or semi-intensive nutrition both crops are suitable for all types of tested marginal soils. TW better tolerated unexpected water-logging that occurred on Site-2 with heavy clay soil than PR, while PR is more suitable for light sandy soil. The following average DM yields were obtained under intensive nutrition on the most productive Site-3 with heavy soil: 11.77 t/ha Szarvasi-1, 10.14 t/ha Alkar, 8.01 t/ha Kriszta and 7.75 t/ha Gergő, whereas on Site-1 with light sandy soil under intensive nutrition the following average yields were achieved: 7.74 t/ha Gergő, 7.72 t/ha Kriszta, 6.29 t/ha Szarvasi-1 and 5.17 t/ha Alkar. PR had about 148 mm less precipitation on average when compared to TW (187 vs. 334 mm) because of earlier harvest time while the average daily temperature was lower by about 1.9 °C on average (16.3 vs. 18.2 °C). As to varieties Kriszta and Gergő, it is probably one of the first original research papers published and probably the first research based on large-scale experiments of PR from the time when it was recognized as an energy crop.