Evaluation of vegetative and reproductive traits of Adesmia bicolor in culture under phosphorus fertilization

Abstract

In the central arid-semi-arid region of Argentina, forage production is mainly based on natural grasslands. The incorporation of native forage legumes in these environments is a favorable strategy, due to their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. Adesmia bicolor has been evaluated for this purpose and, although progress has been made in the knowledge of some agronomic characteristics, there are still no studies on the effect of phosphate fertilizers on its growth and development. The soil analysis prior to the experience detected a low level of P, equivalent to 8 ppm, so the objective of this work was to determine the effect of a phosphate fertilizer on the vegetative and reproductive traits of A. bicolor in culture. Two treatments were applied with the following doses of fertilizer: treatment I (50 kg ha-1 P), treatment II (100 kg ha-1 P), and control (0 kg ha-1 P). During the vegetative stage of the crop the following characteristics were analyzed: number of leaves, stolons, and buds m-2, length and width of 50 leaflets. In the reproductive stage, number of flowers and fruits m-2 and per raceme was determined. The results show that the treatment with application of 50 kg ha-1 P produced the highest number of vegetative and reproductive
structures, so this dose would be the most suitable for fertilization of A. bicolor crop in soils with low P concentrations.