Effect of Planting Material and Variety on Productivity and Survival of Napier Grass (pennisetum purpureum schumach) in the Coastal Lowlands of Kenya

ABSTRACT A study to determine a suitable planting method for multiplication of planting materials of Napier grass varieties was done at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) Msabaha in coastal lowland (CL) agro-ecological zone 4 (CL4). The experimental design was split-plot with a factorial arrangement of three Napier grass varieties: var. Bana (Bana), var. French Cameroon (French Cameroon) and var. Gold Coast (Gold Coast) as the main plot and three types of planting material consisting of stem cuttings with different numbers of nodes (one, two, three nodes) as sub plots which were replicated three times. Data on the number of stools, number of stems per stool and the total number of nodes per treatment of the three Napier grass varieties were collected 11 months after planting. Plant counts and forage dry matter yield data was collected thereafter every two months for one year. Napier grass, established using three and two-node cuttings, maintained a 37% higher amount of surviving plants and a 43% higher amount of forage dry matter, respectively, than the one-node cuttings. Bana and Gold Coast produced a higher (p<0.05) dry matter yield than French Cameroon, while Bana and French Cameroon produced a higher number of planting material per acre. The three-and two-node cuttings proved to be suitable planting materials for long-term dry matter productivity for all three Napier grass varieties.