Morphological characteristics of alfalfa genotypes tolerant to low soil pH

Abstract

In total 76 varieties of alfalfa were collected and sown and 41 alfalfa genotypes showed tolerances to lower soil pH. The selected alfalfa genotypes are then sown in a test field on the soil that belongs to the type of brown soil on the gravel or the cambisol with the soil pH from 5.33 to 5.64. After 5 years, 10 genotypes were selected based on the agronomic properties and the experiment was set up on the soil with the pH from 5.0 to 5.1 in H2O. The following genotypes were used for these tests: G-2, G-11, G-19, G-34, G-39, G-44, G-48, G-51, G-53 and G-100. The following properties were observed: plant height (cm), number of stems per plant, stem thickness (mm), number of internodes per stem, leaf/stem ratio (%), yield of biomass in the I cut (g plant-1). During these tests, the highest degree of tolerance towards the lower soil pH was shown by the genotype G-44. Good results were achieved with alfalfa genotypes G-11 and G-48 where the percentage of survivors was over 80%. The highest average plant height during the three-year study (36.9 cm) was recorded in the genotype G-100. The high and stable yield of dry mass per plant have genotypes G-44 and G-19 and they are grouped in group I and are desirable for further breeding. Genotype and year have statistically significant and highly significant influence on the tested parameters, while the significance of the interaction of the genotype x year was determined only for the thickness of the stem.