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2007. Plant Management Network. This article is in the public domain.
Accepted for publication 26 October 2007. Published 19 November 2007.

Yield and Persistence of Forage and Root-type Chicory Cultivars

Matt A. Sanderson, USDA-ARS Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Unit, Building 3702 Curtin Road, University Park, PA 16802-3702

Corresponding author: Matt A. Sanderson. matt.sanderson@ars.usda.gov

Sanderson, M. A. 2007. Yield and persistence of forage and root-type chicory cultivars. Online. Forage and Grazinglands doi:10.1094/FG-2007-1119-01-RS.

Abstract

A challenge in managing chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) as a forage is dealing with bolting of flower stalks in spring. Cultivars of chicory with reduced bolting potential, used mainly for root and sugar production (root types), are available. An experiment was conducted at Rock Springs, PA, to compare forage cultivars and European root-type cultivars of chicory for yield, bolting, and persistence under clipping. ‘Grasslands Puna,’ ‘Lacerta,’ and ‘Forage Feast’ forage cultivars and ‘Dagerrad,’ ‘Halle,’ and ‘Katrein’ root-type cultivars were sown in April 1999. Plots were cut every 4 week during May to August 2000 and 2001. Dry matter (DM) yield was determined at each harvest and bolting was estimated visually. Stand densities were determined periodically from October 1999 to June 2002. The cultivars did not differ in DM yield in 2000 (average DM of 6700 lb/acre). Grasslands Puna and Lacerta yielded more DM than other cultivars in 2001. More than 80% of Lacerta and Puna plants bolted at the first harvest in both years, whereas only 30 to 40% of Forage Feast and the root cultivars bolted. There was < 10% bolting in Forage Feast and the root-type cultivars after the first harvest in 2000 and during all harvests of 2001. Lacerta suffered a 52% loss of plants in 2000 and a cumulative loss of 90% by June 2002. In June 2002 Lacerta had 2 plants/ft², whereas the other cultivars averaged 6 plants/ft². Reduced bolting would be a useful characteristic of forage chicory cultivars provided that yield and persistence were not compromised.

Forage Chicory and Bolting

Chicory, as a human food, is grown for fresh consumption of the leaves and for its roots, which are used as a coffee substitute and from which inulin is extracted to produce fructose (5). The use of chicory for livestock forage is more recent (2). As a forage crop, chicory reportedly has good drought tolerance and production in summer (10,11,16). Chicory has relatively high digestibility and a low fiber concentration (7,9,14), which are desirable for growing and lactating ruminants (15). Grasslands Puna chicory was the first cultivar developed for pastures (12).

In the northeastern USA, chicory remains vegetative during the year of seeding. In subsequent years, it produces numerous flowering stalks (a process called "bolting") during the spring. The flower stalks are of lower nutritive value to grazing animals than leaves and reduce the efficiency of grazing (2). Bolting is also a problem in root chicory production because it reduces root and sugar yield. A goal in breeding root-type chicory is to develop bolting-resistant cultivars with rapid spring growth (1). These characteristics would also be valuable in forage chicory.

The current study compared three forage chicory cultivars with three European cultivars of root-type chicory. The objective was to determine the productivity, persistence, and degree of bolting of each cultivar.

Description of the Field Study

A field-plot study was conducted at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center near Rock Springs, PA. Soil at the site is a Hagerstown silt loam (fine, mixed, mesic Typic Hapludalfs). Six chicory cultivars were seeded at 4 lb/acre with a plot drill in 6- by 15-ft plots on 28 April 1999, in a clean-tilled seedbed. Grasslands Puna, Lacerta, and Forage Feast are forage cultivars of chicory. Puna originated from New Zealand plant populations, Forage Feast was developed in France, and Lacerta originates from germplasm collected in South America. Dagerred, Katrein, and Halle are chicory cultivars developed in Belgium and used for root production commercially in Europe (Dr. Joost R. A. Baert, Department of Plant Genetics and Breeding, Agricultural Research Centre, CLO, Melle, Belgium, personal communication). Soil tests in 1999 indicated a pH of 6.1, 78 lb/acre of available P, and 108 lb/acre of available K. Limestone was applied at 2 tons/acre in April 2000. Fertilizer N was applied at 50 lb/acre in April, June, and July of 2000 and 2001. Forage dry matter yield was measured on 30 May, 28 June, 25 July, and 22 August 2000. Harvest dates in 2001 were 18 June, 16 July, 14 August, and 12 September. At each harvest, a 1.6- by 13-ft strip was cut to a 3-inch height with a rotary mower equipped with a collection bag. The entire sample was dried at 140°F for 48 h to determine forage dry matter yield.

Plots were rated visually at each harvest for the percentage of bolted plants and weeds. Plants were counted in two 1-ft² quadrats per plot in October 1999, May 2000, October 2000, June 2001, September 2001, and June 2002 to determine the persistence of each cultivar. In late March 2001, significant frost heaving was noted in several plots and all plots were visually rated by two observers for the amount of plants affected by heaving on a scale of 1 (few or no plants frost heaved) to 5 (nearly all plants heaved).

The experiment was a randomized complete block with five blocks (replicates). Analysis of variance was conducted on total seasonal forage dry matter yield. Separate analyses of variance were conducted on the bolting, weed, and plant density data for each harvest date. To satisfy the assumptions of normality and equal error variances, bolting and weed percentages were analyzed on a log₁₀ (percentage + 1) scale. Untransformed means and standard errors are presented in tables. Planned comparisons were used to compare treatment means. The comparisons were: (i) the average of forage-type chicory vs the average of root-type chicory; (ii) Puna vs Forage Feast+Lacerta; and (iii) Forage Feast vs Lacerta.

Forage Yields

In 2000, Puna yielded significantly more DM than Forage Feast and Lacerta (Table 1). In 2001, the root cultivars yielded significantly less DM than the forage cultivars. Dry matter yields of all cultivars except Lacerta were less in 2001 than 2000 (P < 0.05). Yield of Grassland Puna was 18% less in 2001 than 2000, whereas yields of Forage Feast and the root cultivars were about 30% less in 2001. Rainfall in April and May of 2001 was 1.7 inches less than in the same months of 2000 and 2.7 inches below the long-term average, which may have affected first harvest yields. Rainfall in June 2001, however, was 1.7 inches greater than in 2000 and 1.4 inches greater than the long-term average. The yields of Grasslands Puna, Forage Feast, and Lacerta were similar to those obtained in other field-plot research at the same site (13). In that study, yields of the three forage chicory cultivars averaged 7100 lb/acre in 2000 and 4700 lb/acre in 2001. The greater yield of Lacerta compared to other cultivars in 2001 may have been due to its greater production of flowering stalks (see next section).

Table 1. Forage yields of six chicory cultivars at Rock Springs, PA during 2000 and 2001.

*,** Significant at the 0.05 and 0.01 probability levels, respectively. NS, not significant.

Bolting

Lacerta and Grasslands Puna bolted more than other cultivars in both years (Table 2). Lacerta produced many flower stalks at each harvest, whereas the amount of bolting in Grasslands Puna decreased with later harvests. At the first harvest in 2000, 30 to 40% of the root-type cultivars and Forage Feast had bolted, whereas more than 80% of Lacerta and Puna plants had bolted. The high degree of bolting in Lacerta is consistent with its biennial nature. There was little bolting in Forage Feast and the root-type cultivars after the first harvest in each year. Forage Feast was selected from European root-type chicory used for sugar production.

Table 2. Visual estimates of bolting in six chicory cultivars at each harvest during 2000 and 2001 at Rock Springs, PA.

*,** Significant at the 0.05 and 0.01 probability levels, respectively. Significance was assessed on the log₁₀ (% + 1) scale.

Because chicory is a long-day plant, the greatest amount of reproductive growth would be expected during spring in central Pennsylvania when daylengths range from 14 to 16 h. Most uncut Puna chicory plants bolted during spring in a multilocation experiment in West Virginia (6). Bolting of Puna chicory peaked during June and increased with infrequent cutting in Oklahoma research (16). The nutritive value of chicory decreases with bolting because the flower stalks are more fibrous and less digestible than leaves (2).

Persistence of Chicory

All cultivars, except Lacerta, maintained their initial plant density during 2000 (Table 3). The plant density of Lacerta decreased by 50% between May and October 2000. The decrease in plant density of Lacerta may have been related to its reproductive behavior; 30 to 90% of Lacerta plants bolted during the growing season compared with 20% or less bolting in other cultivars (Table 2). Frequent removal of reproductive stems may have weakened Lacerta plants.

Table 3. Plant density of six chicory cultivars during October 1999 to June 2002 at Rock Springs, PA.

 *,** Significant at the 0.05 and 0.01 probability levels, respectively. Significance was assessed on the log₁₀ (% + 1) scale.

All cultivars lost plants during the winter of 2000-2001. Forage Feast and Katrein lost 64% of plants from October 2000 to June 2001. In March 2001, frost heaving was observed in the chicory plots, which may have contributed to plant loss (Figs. 1 to 4). The average heaving score was lower (3.0 vs 4.7; P < 0.05) for Puna than for all other cultivars. It is not clear why there was less heaving in Puna than in other cultivars. In another experiment with Puna, Forage Feast, and Lacerta conducted adjacent to this site, heaving scores averaged 4.6 with no significant difference among cultivars (13). Plant densities continued to decrease during 2001 to June 2002, with essentially equal plant densities for all cultivars except Lacerta by June 2002. Some of the plants that had heaved in March 2001 were still alive when plants were counted at the first harvest. These plants may have been weakened and less able to survive the stress of defoliation during the remainder of the year.

Fig. 1. Roots of chicory heaved from the soil in March 2001.		Fig. 2. Roots of Puna chicory heaved from the soil in March 2001.

Fig. 3. Roots of Forage Feast chicory heaved from the soil in March 2001.		Fig. 4. Roots of Lacerta chicory heaved from the soil in March 2001.

Lacerta suffered a 90% loss of plants from October 1999 to September 2001 compared with an average of 61% for the other cultivars (Table 3). In other clipped-plot research at the same location, plant density of Puna and Forage Feast decreased by 20 to 50% during the same 2-year period, whereas plant density of Lacerta decreased 80% (13). During 2 years of grazing management in central Pennsylvania, 25 to 45% of Puna and Forage Feast plants and 84% of Lacerta plants died (8). In New Zealand, up to 33% of Puna chicory plants died in the first year of grazing (10). West Virginia research demonstrated that the chicory component of mixed species pastures decreased from 80 to 20% of sward dry matter after 3 years of cutting management (3) and that high N fertilization rates (> 400 lb/acre) hastened stand decline (4). Nitrogen was applied at 150 lb/acre (in three applications of 50 lb/acre each) in the current study, thus N fertilization may not have contributed to stand decline.

During 2000, the plots generally had less than 5% weeds at all harvests except for Lacerta, which had an estimated 10% weed in the stand at the fourth harvest (data not shown). The decrease in plant density during 2001 was accompanied by an increase in the amount of weeds in the plots of most cultivars. Estimated weed proportions were less than 10% in June and July of 2001 (data not shown); however, weed invasion increased in August and September (Fig. 5). Lacerta, which had the lowest plant density in September 2001, also had an estimated 30 to 50% weeds in the stand during late summer. Forage Feast and Katrein also had significant weed invasion during the late summer. The predominant weeds during August and September were Digitaria sanguinalis L. and Setaria glauca L. Growing chicory in mixed species swards has been recommended to reduce weed invasion as chicory stands decline (3,4).

Fig. 5. Estimated weed percentages in plots of each cultivar on 14 August and 12 September 2001.

Li et al. (10) determined that a density of 2.3 plants/ft² (25 plants/m²) or less was characteristic of a degraded chicory crop under grazing in New Zealand. Lacerta was the only cultivar to fall below this threshold in plant density (Table 2). The average density in June 2002 for the other cultivars was 6 plants/ft². This was above the threshold proposed by Li et al. (10); however, significant weed invasion still occurred in these plots and their productivity was low. Labreveux et al. (8) also reported an average of 5 to 6 chicory plants/ft² and decreased productivity after two years of grazing Puna chicory at a different site in central Pennsylvania. Thus, the plant density threshold for monoculture stands in the northeastern USA may be greater than 6 plants/ft².

Conclusions

Chicory cultivars differed in their persistence and degree of bolting during this 3-year study. Lacerta chicory produced a large amount of flowering stems and had very low persistence. Forage Feast and the root-type cultivars bolted less than Grasslands Puna and Lacerta. None of the cultivars maintained adequate plant densities beyond two production years. Development of forage chicory cultivars with reduced bolting would be useful provided that yield and persistence were not compromised.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Dr. Joost R. A. Baert, of the Department of Plant Genetics and Breeding, Agricultural Research Centre, CLO, Melle, Belgium for providing seed of the cultivars Dagerrad, Halle, and Katrein. Thanks also to Jerry Elwinger, former Support Scientist, John Everhart, Agricultural Research Technician, and several Penn State University undergraduate workers for their help in conducting this study. Kim Cassida, USDA-ARS, Beaver, WV, provided helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

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