Effect of various fertilizer sources on growth and hay yield of alfalfa

Optimum plant nutrition has an important role in improving its growth and yield and increasing the inputs use efficiency. The current study was performed with the aim of evaluating the effect of various fertilizer sources, including biofertilizer containing the Rhizobium meliloti, sea weed extract, fertilizer containing micronutrients and urea on growth and yield of alfalfa during 2015 at Varamin complex of agriculture and animal husbandry as factorial experiment in the form of complete randomized design with three replications. Results showed that foliar application of urea and soil application of biofertilizer did not have a significant effect on growth and yield of alfalfa. Whereas, foliar application of sea weed extract and multimill fertilizer (containing micronutrients) resulted in increasing the hay yield of alfalfa by 12.7 and 24.7%, respectively. Furthermore, foliar application of micronutrient had a greater effect on hay yield of alfalfa than the sea weed extract, as the yield increment resulted from foliar application of micronutrient was 12 percent more than that obtained from foliar application of sea weed extract. Therefore, results of this study showed that foliar application of sea weed extract and fertilizer containing micronutrients can increase the yield and inputs use efficiency of alfalfa through improving its growth parameters and production of higher dry matter per unit of inputs used by plant.