Abstract

MARTINEZ-ZARAGOZA, Jesús Adán; MARTINEZ-HERNANDEZ, Pedro Arturo; ZARAGOZA-RAMIREZ, José Luis  and  CORTES-DIAZ, Enrique. Profile of the aerial biomass of Crotalaria pumila Ort. accumulated in summer. Rev. Mex. Cienc. Agríc [online]. 2023, vol.14, n.7, e3199.  Epub Dec 08, 2023. ISSN 2007-0934.  https://doi.org/10.29312/remexca.v14i7.3199.

Crotalaria pumila Ort. is a legume native to Mexico with little information about its forage potential based on its profile of accumulation during the summer, so a study was carried out with the aim of determining the total yield and the yield by component during 2021 to generate base information to decide regarding the possibility of the species as a forage species. In an area with spontaneous C. pumila, nine weekly samplings were carried out, in which we determined the total yield and yield by components: leaf, stem, flower, and pods, their proportional contribution to the total and number per plant and plant height. The statistical analysis was for a completely randomized design with three repetitions, the independent variable was the number of days elapsed in the summer. As the summer progressed, total and pod yields increased (p< 0.05), stem yield remained constant (p> 0.05), and leaf yield (p< 0.05) and the number of leaves per plant decreased, the increase in pod yield occurred with an increase (p< 0.05) in the number of pods per plant. The high pod yield made it possible to ensure a natural reseeding of C. pumila. The total yield ranged from 9 to just over 20 t ha-1. The conclusion is that based on the total yield, Crotalaria pumila can be a forage species option.

Keywords : native legume; pods; total yield.