@article{Adjei:257077,
      recid = {257077},
      author = {Adjei, M. B. and Gentry, T. J.},
      title = {FORAGE GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF LABLAB BEAN IN THE SEMI-ARID  TROPICS},
      address = {1995-07-06},
      number = {1889-2017-891},
      pages = {9},
      year = {1995},
      abstract = {Lablab bean {Ixiblab purpureas (L.) Sweet) is a  fast-growing, short-term perennial, tropical legume with a  myriad uses for food, feed and green manure. The primary  objective of this study was to determine clipping  management practices required for optimizing hay and  nitrogen yields of the lablab cultivar Rongai in the dry  Caribbean. A secondary objective was to compare agronomic  trails of eight introduced lablab bean accessions. Plots of  lablab bean established on an alkaline fpH>7.8) clay soil  (fine carbonitic, isohyperthermic, Typic Rendolls  Mollisols) were initially harvested at one of four  physiological stages of growth: vegetative (VGT), first  visible inflorescence (FVI), full bloom (FB) and green pod  (GP) to a 15-cm stubble height. The experimental design was  a randomized complete block with three replicates. A  subsequent forage harvest was taken at the green pod stage  of growth for all treatments because of the propensity of  lablab bean to flower early in the cool, shortday  photoperiod between the months of December and March,  Forage subsamples were processed for leaf/stem ratio and  overall dry matter (DM) yield determination. Another  subsample was separated into two sequential 15-cm fractions  and a top vertical fraction beginning from the base of  harvested forage. All forage fractions were dried and  analyzed for crude protein (CP). Forage DM yield from the  initial harvest followed a typical sigmoid growth curve. It  increased from 1,180 kg/ha at the VGT to 3,440 kg/ha at the  GP stages of growth. Average DM yield from the aftermath  was only 588 kg/ha, regardless of the initial harvest  treatment, because of drought and a shorter photoperiod.  The leaf fraction constituted 60 and 50% of forage DM for  the first three and the GP stages of growth, respectively.  Mean leaf CP was 25% and independent of maturity. However,  stem CP decreased from 11 to 7% in the initial harvest with  maturity but remained constant at 11 % in the aftermath.  The basal 15-cm forage fraction constituted 17% of total DM  at the VGT but 9-13% at the reproductive stages of plant  growth. The upper two fractions (83-91% of forage DM)  exhibited CP contents between 15 and 25%. The results  suggest that approximately 3,500 kg/ ha of lablab hay with  20% CP content is obtainable in a very dry season. For dual  seed and forage production, Rongai was simitar to the best  introduced accessions. However, individual lablab bean  accessions exhibited either higher seed or forage  production than Rongai. More experiments are being  conducted to determine lablab performance under favourable  rainfall conditions in the Caribbean.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/257077},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.257077},
}