Evaluation of grain and forage yield and amount of some elements in fodder of new triticale lines affected by nitrogen splitting

Triticale is the first man-made crop. It was designed in order to obtain a cereal, which combines good quality grain yield from wheat parent with tolerance to abiotic and biotic stress. Modern triticale cultivars show higher yields and superior adaptation to soil quality and environments than wheat. In arid and semi-arid conditions, triticale has higher forage yield than wheat and barley.)Oelke et al., 2009(. From triticale, grain yield was reported 5641 kg / ha. (Salehi et. al., 2018). Selection of suitable genotype is very important and will increase seed and forage yield of triticale. Yield superiority of Sanabad cultivar (line ET-82-15) compared to control (Juanilo 92) was reported. But in a report, the average grain yield of Page cultivar (line ET-84-17) was higher than Juanilo 92 and Sanabad (Guodsi et. al., 2017). Many authors have reported positive effect of N fertilization on grain yield .The optimal timing of N application increased grain yield and protein content. One of the major agro technical factors which affect grain yield and enable farmers to take advantage of the high production potential of cereals is mineral fertilization, especially nitrogen nutrition. Nitrogen is the most important yield-boosting nutrient. It affects final grain yield through the influencing on the formation of yield components during the whole growing season. Both N rates and application time are important to the development of yield components.

In order to determine effect of nitrogen on forage and grain yield of triticale genotypes, this experiment was done in Qarakheil (Qaemshahr) and Baye cola (Neka) of Mazandaran province. The experiment was carried out as split plot factorial design with three replications in the 2016-2017 growing season. Six new triticale genotypes (ET-89-1، ET-89-7، ET-89-9 ، ET-89-12، ET-89 - 13 and ET-89-16) were assigned to the main plots. Three levels of nitrogen amount (50, 70 and 90 kg.ha-1) and three timings of nitrogen application (planting + stem elongation, planting + heading and planting + tillering) were assigned to the sub plots as factorial treatments. Forage yield, dry forage yield, forage nitrogen, grain yield, plant height, and phosphorus, potassium and calcium in forage were measured.

The results of the combined analysis of variance indicated that the effect of location was significant on the all studied traits (except for forage nitrogen and calcium). The highest grain yield (5.914 ton.ha-1) was obtained with Bayecola, which significantly differed from Qarakheil where yield production was recorded as 5.628 ton.ha-1. The highest forage yield of 48.59 ton.ha-1 was achieved in Qarakheil, which had significant difference compared with the yield of Bayecola (43.34 ton.ha-1). Titicale genotype ET-89-13 was the best genotype in terms of forage (50.53 ton.ha-1)and grain yield (6.136 ton.ha-1). The greatest forage and grain yield (46.89 and 5.973 ton.ha-1, respectively) were obtained when nitrogen was used at 90 kg.ha-1. The application time of nitrogen: (1-planting + stem elongation, 2-planting + heading 3-tillering + heading) did not significantly affect forage yield. The application of nitrogen at the tillering + heading stage produced the greatest grain yield of 6.030 ton.ha-1 that had significant difference with other treatments. Nitrogen treatment at 90 kg.ha-1 resulted in the highest nitrogen content in dry forage (1.27 %). The use of nitrogen at the tillering + heading stage gave the greatest nitrogen content in dry forage (1.254 %). The application of 90 kg.ha-1 nitrogen produced the highest potassium content in plant (1.485%).

Our results indicated that the amount of nitrogen is important on forage and grain yield of triticale, while the application time of nitrogen had no significant effect on forage yield. the application of nitrogen at the tillering + heading stage produced the highest grain yield in triticale.