The effect of harvest date on the yield and mineral content of Phalaris arundinacea L. (reed canary grass) genotypes screened for their potential as energy crops in southern England

Abstract

The effect of harvest date on dry matter production per hectare and moisture content of 13 genotypes of Phalaris arundinacea (reed canary grass) was studied between 1995 and 1998 and N, P and K concentration in biomass was measured in 1998. There were two winter harvests, the first at crop senescence and the second after a subsequent delay of several weeks which varied each year. Average dry matter production was higher at the first (conventional) harvest than at the delayed harvest except in 1996. Each year there were differences in yield between genotypes and some differences were significant. Delayed harvest reduced yield by an average of 24% in 1997 and 23% in 1998 when losses resulted from 48% loss of leaf and 16% of stem matter. Delayed harvest decreased moisture content by 50% in 1997 and 52% in 1998 but it was 49% higher in 1996. In 1998, delayed harvest did not reduce N concentration in all genotypes and the reduction of P was variable, but K concentration was reduced by an average of 54%. Results indicate the suitability of reed canary grass as a biofuel, and variability between genotypes offers potential for crop improvement through selection and breeding.

Biomass Yield of Naturalized Populations and Cultivars of Reed Canary Grass

“…2) out of a total of 80 cultivars and accessions. These results are similar to results from a group of Canadian accessions [18], a group of Swedish accessions [12], and a group of continental European accessions evaluated in England [9].…”

“…Broad-sense heritability of biomass yield was 0.67, and the genotypic variance component was higher than all other variance components, except for the error variance. Although there was some significant genotype× environment interaction for biomass yield, these components made up only a small portion of the variance of a genotype (accession or cultivar) mean (15.8%), similar to observations made on other studies [2,9]. The consistent performance of populations across multiple locations and years reflects the broad adaptation of reed canary grass across the temperate North American landscape, resulting in fairly consistent genotypic expression for biomass yield at the sites chosen for this study.…”

All Washed Out? Foliar Nutrient Resorption and Leaching in Senescing Switchgrass

“…Finally, delayed harvest studies often cite nutrient changes on a total standing crop basis. It is perhaps more likely that overwinter physical changes such as leaf drop are influencing the change in mineral nutrient content from the fall to the spring [12,54]. Attempts to quantify these nutrient loss processes are worthy avenues of future research.…”

A review of the mitigation of deposition and emission problems during biomass combustion through washing pre-treatment

“…In the case of agricultural residues from some industrial processes; the amount of shells, husks and pits and the way in which the crops are processed also influence their composition [4]. Work on energy crop agronomy has shown that inorganics can also vary with fertilizer treatment and time of harvest, as well as the part of the biomass (leaf, stem etc) [5][6][7][8][9][10].…”