Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXIII, Issue 2
Written by Selvie Diana ANIS, Yohannis TULUNG, Agnitje RUMAMBI, Poulla WALELENG, Siane RIMBING
Brachiaria humidicola is one of perennial forage grass with creeping growth habit, having stolon, grown well and tolerant under shade environment, persist regular defoliation and in rotational grazing produce more and long vigorous roots. Imperata cylindrica is considered as the worst weed of over the agricultural land in most tropical regions. This type of weeds impact the lost of soil water via plant evaporations. The aims of this research was to studied the ability of B.humidicola to transform I. cylindrica field to be a good pasture in coconut plantation. In this experiment B. humidicola was planted in the area grown by I. cylindrica but already slashed 5 cm above ground level. Treatments consisted of planting distance of B.humidicola PD-1 = 30 x 30 cm, PD-2 = 50 x 50 cm and PD-3 = 100 x 100 cm apart (A factor), and cutting frequencies CF-1 = 15 days, CF-2 = 30 days and CF-3 = 45 days (B factor). Cutting of B. humidicola together in the same time with I. cylindrica. Treatments were put as factorial arrangement based on completely randomized design. The variables measured were botanical composition, below ground (BG) dry matter, forages production and quality. Data analysis was using ANOVA followed by HSD. The results showed all variable measured were significant higher at the treatments interaction of planting distance of PD-1 and cutting frequencies CF-3. At this interaction botanical composition and below ground dry matter production were dominated by B. humidicola component. Based on these results it could be concluded that B. humidicola as forage cover crops potential and useful as biological herbicide to control I. cylindrica and transformed it to be a good pasture in coconut plantations.
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