Thursday, January 11, 2007 - 4:30 PM

Benefits of Perennial Grasses in Rotation with Cotton and Peanut in Virginia

James M. Weeks, 1855 Merrimac Rd., Blacksburg, VA 24060, Joel C. Faircloth, Virginia Tech, Tidewater Ag. Research and Ext. Center, 6321 Holland Rd., Suffolk, VA 23437, P. M. Phipps, Tidewater Ag Res & Ext Ctr, Virginia Tech, Tidewater Ag Res & Ext Ctr, 6321 Holland Rd., Suffolk, VA 23437, Mark M. Alley, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 416 Smyth Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24060, and Robert Nichols, Cotton Incorporated, Cotton Incorporated World Headquarters, 6399 Weston Parkway, Cary, NC 27513.

Studies have demonstrated potential for the use of perennial grasses in rotation with annual crops for improvement and stabilization of yields. In the spring of 2004, 8- 4 year rotation treatments were imposed on land previously cropped to peanuts at the Virginia Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center. Rotations established were; cotton-cotton-cotton-cotton, cotton-corn-cotton-peanut, cotton-peanut-cotton-peanut, fescue-fescue-cotton-peanut, orchardgrass-orchardgrass-cotton-peanut, fescue-fescue-fescue-peanut, orchardgrass-orchardgrass-orchardgrass-peanut, and soybean-cotton-cotton-peanut. Each treatment consisted of 8 forty foot rows with four replications analyzed as a randomized complete block design. During the summer of 2006, treatments rotated into cotton were sampled for soil quality factors conducive to successful crop growth, pathogen incidence, cotton development (plant height, nodes above white flower, plant mapping), and lint yield and quality.

Recorded presentation