Influence of inter- and intra-row spacing on components of seed production of a tetraploid red clover, ‘Grasslands Pawera”

Abstract

One stand of tetraploid red clover was drilled at 60 and 15 em inter-row spacing and later thinned to 5 or 10 plants per metre length of row for the second harvest year. Another stand was planted to these specifications and the seed yield taken in the year of planting. Highest seed yield was from the 60/10 spacing (250 kg/ha in 1971 from the thinned stand and 454 kg/ha in 1972 from the planted stand). The wide-spaced planting gave higher numbers of flowering stems per plant than the narrow-spaced rows. In 1972, 1000-seed weight of the crop was 3.1 g compared with 2.3 g in 1971.