Effects of irrigation on growth traits, nutritional quality and seed characteristics of medicago falcata var. Romanica in an oasis

Abstract

The present study explored the effects of irrigation and growing year on the growth traits, nutritional quality and seed characteristics of Roman alfalfa. The study was comprised of three irrigation regimes and three growth years from 2016-2018 in Xinjiang, China. Results showed that the plant height, branch number, stem-leaf ratio, stem diameter and dry matter per plant of Roman alfalfa increased gradually with increasing irrigation amount, the stem-leaf ratio, hay yield and crude protein content in the D125 and D100 treatments were significantly greater than in the D75 treatment (P < 0.05). Of all the growth factors, plant height contributed the most to hay yield, and stem-leaf ratio contributed the most to crude protein content. Compared to wild species, these growth attributes of cultivated Roman alfalfa increased with each growth year. The dry matter weight per plant of Roman alfalfa increased by 26.89 and 37.74% in the sec year and the third year, respectively, compared to first sowing year. The content of crude protein in the sec and third years was significantly higher than first year in wild species (P < 0.05). The 100-grain weight of wild species was significantly higher than cultivated alfalfa in the first year (P < 0.05), and decreased gradually with each growth year. In conclusion, compared with the effects of the growth year treatments, irrigation can significantly improve the growth traits and nutritional quality of Roman alfalfa.