White lupin as a forage crop on alkaline soils

Abstract

White lupin (Lupinus albus L.) is not widely known in Serbia. A small-plot trial was carried out during 2006 and 2007 at the Rimski Šancevi Experiment Field of the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, on a carbonated chernozem soil with a pH value in H₂O of 7.92. It included twelve white lupin accessions of diverse geographical origin from the Annual Forage Legumes Collection of the Forage Crops Department of the Institute. All accessions were sown in early March, with a crop density of 75-85 viable seeds m⁻², and were cut when main stem inflorescences were in full flower. The tallest accession was Termis (120 cm). The greatest number of main stems and first-order branches was in BG-005542 (9.0 plant⁻¹) and BG-002171 (8.7 plant⁻¹), with the former having most leaves as well (59.7 plant⁻¹). Accessions BG-005542 and LUP 261/89 had the highest green forage yields of 53.3 t ha⁻¹ and 52.9 t ha⁻¹ respectively. The average dry forage matter yield ranged from 4.0 t ha⁻¹ in BG-002173 to 8.7 t ha⁻¹ in Termis. The greatest dry matter proportion in green forage was in Termis and Siebacher Red (0.19).