The Effects Of Different Cultivation Treatments On The Productivity And Nutritive Values Of Chicory

Chicory (Cichorium intybus L), member of Composiate family, is a perennial heral forage. Growth traits and the effects of different cultivation treatments on the productivity and nutritive values of Puna chicory were explored at the Forage Center of Yangzhou University .in order to evaluate Chicory's production potentiality.1. Growth traits of Puna Chicory at six different stages, the result showed:At seedling stage, the chicory had low contents of the fresh weight,the length of root,number of lateral root,contents of CF,total sugar, However, it had a high content of CP.; And the fresh weight,the length of root,contents of DM,CF and total sugar increased gradually at rosette stage in autumn, when the content of CP decreased; While at the over-wintering stage, all the indexes didn't change almostly; At rosette stage in spring, the growth of chicory was fast and flourish , From rosette stage in spring to bolting stage: the contents of DM,CF Ca,NDF and ADF on up-ground increased rapidly, and the contents of CP,total sugar,Ca decreased, all the changes of indexes on under-ground part were the same as the up-ground part except of the content of Ca. From bolting stage to flowering stage, about the up-ground part ,fresh weight and the contents of DM,CF,CF,ADF and NDF went on increasing, while other indexes decreasing, :all the changes of indexes of the under-ground were as the same as the up-ground part except of the content of Ca .2. The effects of flat cultivation and hill cultureon the growth performance of Puna Chicory, the result showed:The hill culture was more favored for the growth performance of Puna Chicory than flat cultivation in the Yangtse River Basin while the fertilization and planting density were same. And the increasing speeds of the fresh weight on hill culture EG were much better than the flat cultivation EG.. Meanwhile the hill culture EG developed the growth stage earlier than the flat cultivation EG about one week since bolting stage, The over-wintering rates of two groups were 98% , and the over-summering rate of the hill culture EG was higher than the comparing EG about 8%. The hill culture could enhance the over-summering rate, and it promoted the development of Puna Chicory.3. The effects of different cultivation treatments on the growth performance and nutritivevalues of Puna Chicory:The result showed: the EG of boosting potassium fertilizer,density about 25cm*40cm was favored for the growth of the up-ground part, and the EG of boosting potassium fertilizer,density about 15cm*40cm was favored for the growth of the under-group part. For the contents of DM: the EG of density about 15cm*40cm,top dressing was the best treatment on the growth of the up-ground part. Top dressing was favored for other nutritive constituents than the treatments without top dressing. Meanwhile, the over-wintering rate was higher than the over-summering rate in the south. And the over-wintering rate was correlated with growing density. it had the negative correlation with the growing density.The result showed there was not a correlation between the over-wintering rate and fertilization.