Influence of soil quality for yield and biometric features of Sida hermaphrodita L. Rusby

Abstract

Although the domain role of agriculture is food production, a part of agricultural land has always been devoted to non-food products, mainly within the framework of emerging technologies. One of the plants that can be used for various non-food purposes is Virginia mallow (Sida hermaphrodita L. Rusby). Following this study it was found that Sida hermaphrodita yields less on poor soil and on soils of good quality, but is too heavy. This plant has best yields on good soils with proper water-air relations. Nevertheless, good yields were also obtained on poorer and medium-quality soils. This is particularly important from the standpoint of competition for land resources between production for food and non-food products. Achieving yield at 1-2 kg DM (m2)-1 is possible in the case of plants that grow from 16 to 24 shoots for stumps with a diameter of 11-13 mm and a height of 2.2-2.6 m.