Productive and morpho-physiological traits of ryegrass cultivars

In recent years, various ryegrass cultivars have been released in the Brazilian market, but it is necessary to make a proper characterization of their productive and morpho-physiological traits, in order to support the choice of the most appropriate genotype for each environment and production system. This study aimed to evaluate, under greenhouse conditions, the productive and morphophysiological traits of ryegrass cultivars, under pruning. Treatments consisted of three diploid [Comum-RS (Lolium multiflorum), Pronto® (Lolium multiflorum var. westerwoldicum) and Conquest® (Lolium multiflorum var. Italicum)] and four tetraploid cultivars [INIA Titan® (Lolium multiflorum var. Italicum), Winter Star® (Lolium multiflorum var. westerwoldicum), KLM 138® (Lolium multiflorum var. italicum) and Banquet II® (Lolium perenne)], in a completely randomized design, totaling seven treatments, with six replications. The variables evaluated were forage weight, absolute growth rate (AGR), leaf area (LA), leaf area ratio (LAR), leaf weight ratio (LWR), specific leaf area (SLA), net assimilation rate (NAR), relative growth rate (RGR), time for the first pruning and pruning intervals. Significant differences were observed for all variables. The INIA Titan® cultivar showed the highest forage weight, while the LAR, LWR, SLA, NRA and RGR were higher for the Pronto® cultivar and the AGR was higher for the Banquet II® cultivar. The Pronto® cultivar presented early yield (51 days until the first pruning) and fast regrowth (11 days for pruning interval) and the INIA Titan® rapid regrowth (15 days for pruning interval) combined with high forage weight