Acta Univ. Agric. Silvic. Mendelianae Brun. 2013, 61(6), 1741-1747 | DOI: 10.11118/actaun201361061741

Clipping management and its effect on the composition and height of low-input turf

Pavel Knot

Department of Animal Nutrition and Forage Production, Mendel University in Brno, Zemědělská 1, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic

The effect of mulching and moving management on the height and the composition of low-input turf was studied in Vatin research station of fodder crops regularly in May, during years 2007-2012. The experiment was established in 2006 with using a clover-grass lawn mixture (95% grasses, 5% clover crops). The experimental plots were not fertilized and the patches were mown or mulched five times a year to a sward height of 40 mm.
The achieved results show that mulching affected the composition of the low-input turf very significantly. On the average of six-year monitoring, the representation of grasses in the sward of the mulched variant was 66.9%, which was a significantly higher share of grasses than in the mown variant (52.3%). By contrast, the share of clover crops in the mown variant (36.6%) was significantly higher than in the mulched variant (21.3%). Mulching significantly affected neither the infestation by weeds nor the total sward cover.
Mean height of the cut sward was non-significantly higher by 10.1% in the mulched variant with the sward heights being 210.9mm in the mown variant and 232.3mm in the mulched variant.

Keywords: low-input turf, mowing, mulching, height, sward composition

Grants and funding:

The paper was prepared under the support from Grant No. QJ1310100 Development and optimization methods for the determination of biogenic amines in response to increasing health security of silage funded by the National Agency for Agricultural Research.

Received: June 30, 2013; Published: November 24, 2013  Show citation