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Title: PERENNIAL PEANUT AS A LIVING MULCH IN VEGETABLE FIELDS, ORCHARDS, AND HIGHWAY RAMPS

Author
item BRYAN, HERBERT - UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
item Abdul Baki, Aref
item Reeves Iii, James
item Carrera, Lidia
item KLASSEN, WALDEMAR - UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
item ZINATI, GLADIS - UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
item CODALLO, MERLYN - UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Submitted to: Journal of Vegetable Crop Production
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/2/2001
Publication Date: 4/2/2001
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Florida's pasture-based beef cattle industry depends upon hay imports from northern states due to lack of pasture crops that grow in winter. Likewise, its vegetable production industry depends on a cover crop that would enrich the soil and prevent soil erosion. We evaluated fifteen accessions of perennial peanut for forage production and identified five accessions that perform well in the southern Florida climate. These accessions produce excellent biomass and fix nitrogen. They offer a multiple use by serving as a nutritional forage and hay source for cattle, as a cover crop to replace plastic mulches in vegetable fields, and as a flowering ornamental cover on sidewalks and highway ramps. Users of this research are the vegetable growers, the fruit growers, the beef cattle industry, and the Department of Transportation.

Technical Abstract: Fifteen accessions of perennial peanut (Arachis sp.) were evaluated at the farm of the Tropical Research and Education Center, IFES, Homestead, Florida, between 1997 and 1999. Evaluation included multipurpose uses such as living mulches in no-till vegetable production fields and orchards, forages for animal feeding, and ornamental ground covers along highway ramps and sidewalks. Five accessions grew well in the low-fertility, calcarious soils without fertilizers, pesticides, or irrigation. Biomass yields of the selected accession at full establishment ranged from 12.0 to 21.5 t. ha-1. Nitrogen content of dry biomass was about 3%. Crude proteins were highest in leaves. Hemicellulose content of green leaflets exhibited a wide variation from 12.8% to 27.2%. These properties offer great potential for use as living mulches, forages, and ornamentals. The wide differences in morphological and biochemical properties among accessions suggest that major genetic differences exist in the available germplasm which permit breeding and release of cultivars with many of these desirable characteristics.