Varietal Characteristics of Jerusalem Artichoke as a High Nutritional Value Crop for Herbivorous Animal Husbandry

Abstract

Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) is considered to be one of the most promising multipurpose bioenergetic crops. The goal of this study was to carry out laboratory and field research regarding the tops and tubers of 16 Jerusalem artichoke (JA) cultivars grown on sod-podzolic sandy loam soils, taking into account varietal characteristics in order to point out advances in JA potential as alternative feedstock in herbivorous animal husbandry. The height of JA plants produced was from 147 to 280 cm. Having formed by the beginning of September, the size of the assimilating leaf apparatus surface was 0.41 to 2.31 m2/plant. In early September, the productivity of JA green mass amounted to 23.6 to 86.0 t/ha for late-maturing cultivars on average; correspondingly, this was 13.0 to 25.4 t/ha for early-maturing cultivars. At the end of October, the “late” cultivars produced 28.2 to 86.9 t/ha of green mass; on the contrary, the herbage of the “early” ones mostly withered and even dried up. The highest gross yield of tubers in early September was obtained from cultivars Diyeticheskiy (43.5 t/ha) and Nadezhda (40.8 t/ha). The average yield of early-maturing cultivars was 13.4 … 43.5 t/ha; as for “late” ones, it was reported to be 6.0 … 35.9 t/ha. In the third ten-day period of October, tubers of all cultivars gained weight significantly: the average yield of early-maturing cultivar tubers increased up to 33.1 …51.1 t/ha, whereas the average tuber yields of “late” cultivars were 14.4 … 43.9 t/ha. On average, the distribution of dry matter content in JA was 28.8 to 29.8% in aboveground biomass and in tubers, 23.8 to 24.0%. According to the chemical composition, cellulose (10.9 to 13.1%) and sugars (4.0 to 4.2%) could be noted to predominate in the green mass, but tubers were high in sugars (16.9 to 17.6%). The analyses on the trace elements (Ca, Fe, Mg, Mn, Si and Zn) showed that crop green mass contained more Mg (45 to 72 mg/100 g) and Mn (44 to 65 mg/100 g), but for JA tubers, late-maturing cultivars were rich in Si (27.2 to 79.0 mg/100 g) and early-maturing cultivars were mainly high in Zn (32.8 to 46.5 mg/100 g). The highest total coefficient of energy efficiency was displayed by the following cultivars: Novost VIRa (3.09); Tadzhikskiy (2.78); Spindle (2.68); Korenevskiy (2.43); Interes (2.10); and Skorospelka (1.98). In this respect, Jerusalem artichoke certainly has potential as a forage crop that can reach high yields with low external inputs. The data obtained may be useful for farmers who want to adapt and produce this useful and essential crop for the sustainability of feed production.