Evaluation of the characteristics and agronomic value of Finnish Tammisto meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis huds.) seed grown in the USA

Authors

• Eero Valle Department of Plant Husbandry, University of Helsinki
• Otto Valle Department of Plant Husbandry, University of Helsinki
• Kirsti Äyräväinen Department of Plant Husbandry, University of Helsinki
• C. S. Garrison Plant Science Research Division, Agricultural Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23986/afsci.71833

Abstract

Seed of the Finnish meadow fescue cultivar Tammisto was grown up to four successive generations at Prosser, Washington and Shafter and Tehachapi, California, USA. Each seed lot was evaluated for its characteristics in Finland by single-plant tests in which the basic seed lot for all the American increases served as standard. Average seed yields ranged from 540 to 660 kg/ha at the three American trial locations. No remarkable significant differences occurred in seed yields as the generation of increase advanced from the first to the fourth. The evaluated trials indicate that there was a substantial stability in the response of the cultivar to the environmental conditions at each seed production location. The greatest changes were found to have occurred in the Shafter lots, whereas those from Prosser and Tehachapi showed minor shifts and resembled each other quite closely. The clearest shifts occurred in the rate of development. All lots showed an increase in the proportion of plants headed in the first season, and in the second season they likewise became headed earlier than the Finnish basic lot. The shift towards earliness took place mostly in the first generation, although a continuing shift towards earlier average date of heading was still observed in the third generation. The two characteristics indicating heading were highly significantly correlated with each other but not with any of the six other characteristics observed. Seed from all the three American experimental locations gave rise to populations with noticeably reduced proportions of prostrate-growing plants. This change usually took place during the first generation of increase. The third and fourth-generation lots from Prosser and Shafter overwintered distinctly less well than the first and second-generation or basic seed lots. In other characteristics shifts were minor or non-existent. Within the material from each seed production location evaluation trials showed positive correlations between each of the following characteristics: winter survival, number of stalks/plant (2nd year), plant height and fresh weight. Partial correlations calculated from the entire US material showed that winter survival and fresh weight were positively correlated with stalk number and plant height; between the two latter characteristics there was a significant negative correlation. Forage production trials revealed no differences between the lots in terms of total forage yield and winter survival, not even after three to four generations of seed increase in the USA.