IMPACT OF SEEDING DISTANCE BETWEEN ROWS ON STOLONS FEATURES IN TRIFOLIUM REPENS L.

Trifolium repens (white trefoil) is an important perennial leguminous species from permanent and artificial pastures. White trefoil is usually cultivated in mixture with a grass species, respectively Lolium perenne because they are forming together a balanced source of forage from nutritional point of view. The research analyses the variation of the seasonal growth of Trifolium repens and Lolium perenne in pure stands and as mixture in the conditions of grazing with sheep and cutting. The research was performed at Research and Development Station for Sheep and Goats Breeding Caransebeș on an albic luvisol, pseudo-gleyic, low acid, moderate provisioned with phosphorus and potassium. The formation, growth and development of Trifolium repens stolons was assessed at every grazing cycle and after every cut. Also, there was assessed the plant height before every cutting or grazing cycle. The experimental factors considered were exploitation mode (cutting, grazing 2 LU/ha and 4 LU / ha) and distance between rows at seeding (12.5 and 25 cm). The assessed features for Trifolium repens were: length of the stolons per plant, number of nodes per stolon and the distance between two nodes per 10 plants from each replicate. Distance between rows hasn’t been influenced by the analysed stolons features. Also, once with the increase of the nodes number decreases the length of an internode, these two features of the stolons being corelated negatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]