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Proceedings
SEED PRODUCTION OF SCORPIURUS SUBVILLOSUS L. IN SICILY. FIRST RESULTS ON CROP MANAGEMENT
V. Abbate1 C. Patanč2 O. Sortino1 and M. Cammarata1
1 Istituto di Agronomia generale e Coltivazioni erbacee - Via Valdisavoia 5, 95123 Catania (Italy).
Tel.: ++3995234480. Fax: ++3995234449. Email: abbatev@mbox.fagr.unict.it
2 Centro di Studio sulle Colture Erbacee Strategiche per l'ambiente Mediterraneo, CNR, Via Valdisavoia 5, 95123 Catania (Italy). Tel.: ++3995234480. Fax: ++3995234449. Email: agronomi@mbox.fagr.unict.it
Scorpiurus subvillosus L. is a typical legume species of pastures of Ragusa plateau (Sicily-Italy), interesting for its high nutritive forage value, for which the transfer from natural to cultivated state for seed production involves problems in relation to the most suitable crop management.
To this purpose, a two-year of research (1996-98) was carried out with the aim at evaluating the effect of some agronomic aspects (sowing dates and plant density) on seed productivity. Among 6 sowing dates (4 autumnal between September and October and two spring both in April) studied, the first ones ensured seed yields (1.60 t ha-1 on the average) much higher than the second ones (both lower than 0.30 t ha-1). As far as plant density is concerned, the yield was much affected by the increase of plant number per unit area up to 80 plants m-2, as observed in the first year, but the further rise to 120 plants m-2 did not determine any significant gain in seed yield, as observed in the second year. Furthermore, in this last, seed yield was not significantly affected by the narrowing of the row distance from 50 to 25 cm in any plant density studied, showing that the choice of the row spacing only depends on agronomic requirements, for instance the tillage method adopted.
Keywords: Scorpiurus subvillosus L.; Seed yield; Sowing date; Plant density.