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

Abstract

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International LicenseThis 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 -1 NPK, (b) semiintensive nutrition of 122.5 kg.ha -1 NPK and (c) untreated control of 0.0 kg.ha -1 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 (2016/2017 to 2019/2020). 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 -1 on average was found, it ranged from 0.01 to 13.46 t.ha -1 .

Ligno-Cellulose Quality and Calorific Value ofElymus elongatusL. and the NovelSecale cereanumTested Under Central European Conditions

“…In contrast to TW, research papers on PR (Halasz & Sipos 2007;Sipos & Halasz 2007;Szakács et al 2020;Szőke-Pázsi et al 2021) do not consist of data on ligno-cellulose quality and calorific value. The present study is probably the first of that issue, more precisely, it is related to the paper focused on the green phytomass yield main effects (Tóth 2023). Therefore, it can be important to state with emphasis that perennial rye Secale cereanum is a novel crop, which is completely different from perennial ryegrass Lolium perenne L., a weedy species commonly spread on fields (Tóth 2008).…”

“…Moreover, second-order polynomial functions in the case of trend analyses were also performed. For this purpose, it was applied 576 other biometric data as independent variables, whereas the analytical study of these complementary parameters (crop yield, plant height and dry matter content at harvest) itself is the subject of the related paper (Tóth 2023). These dependencies of quality indicators on biometric parameters have an additional character nonce, therefore the simple description of the trend by shape type is preferred over giving complex polynomial formulas (Tyler & Olsson 2001), only the reliability index is displayed in the figures.…”

“…A more detailed description of the field experiments in terms of used agronomy, soil-climatic conditions, plant material, biometric parameters, and collection of plant samples is presented in a related paper (Tóth 2023).…”

“…Both marginal lands and rye fields could be used to cultivate perennial rye (Secale cereanum), a perennial grass newly recognized for bioenergy purposes and multiple uses. Both these perennial grasses have a wider ecological amplitude than winter rye, however, some soil-climate specifics need to be taken into account because there is no universal crop (Halasz & Sipos 2007;Sipos & Halasz 2007;Schneider et al 2016;Szakács et al 2020;Szöke-Pázsi et al 2021;Tóth 2023).…”