Determining effects of sodicity and salinity on switchgrass and prairie cordgrass germination and plant growth
Section snippets
Plant materials
Seeds of three switchgrass (EG 2101, EG 1101 and EG 1102, Blade® Energy Crops, Thousand Oaks, CA, USA) cultivars and six prairie cordgrass (Red River, pc17-102, pc17-109, pc19-106, pc20-102 and pc46-109) populations were stored at 4 °C prior to initiation of the experiment. Red River (Millborn Seeds Inc., Brookings, SD, USA) is a commercially available prairie cordgrass germplasm. All other prairie cordgrass populations were wild populations originating in various locations throughout the
Seedling emergence
There was no clear trend in emergence across salt treatments (Table 2), and neither sodicity (P = 0.68) nor salinity (P = 0.21) were significant. Population (P < 0.0001) and the interaction terms sodicity × population (P = 0.05) and sodicity × salinity (P = 0.02), however, were significant. The effects of salt treatments on emergence rates as measured with the modified Timson index did not differ greatly from the effects on percent emergence (Fig. 1). Emergence rates were generally impacted by salt
Seedling emergence
Reduction in seed emergence in control treatments under greenhouse conditions compared with results obtained under growth chamber conditions (Table 2) was not unexpected and is not of major concern in the present study. Mitchell and Vogel (2012) found that emergence from 4 cm of sand in the greenhouse was the best predictor of field emergence. They also noted that germination as reported on seed lot tags, which is estimated under growth chamber conditions, is generally higher than obtained under
Conclusions
Certain populations of switchgrass and prairie cordgrass appear to be good candidates for biofuels feedstock production on salt-affected land. Several prairie cordgrass populations, as well as the lowland switchgrass cultivars EG 1101 and EG 1102, exhibited good emergence response to irrigation water up to 10 dS m−1. It is expected that higher seeding rates will be needed to ensure adequate stand establishment on excessively high salt-affected soils. Switchgrass EG 1102 and prairie cordgrass
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Santanu Thapa and Nathan Deppe for their technical assistance as well as the Department of Crop Sciences and the Energy Biosciences Institute for their funding of this project.
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