School of Agriculture and Land Resources Management, Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station
Abstract
This report (a) summarizes the characteristics of timothy
(Phleum pratense L.) as a forage species, (b) reviews
briefly the history of its use in the U.S., and the history
of timothy evaluations and culture in Alaska, (c) compares
winterhardiness of alpine timothy (P. alpinum L.)
with common timothy, (d) compares physiological and
morphological characteristics of timothy cultivars from
widely divergent latitudinal origins and relates those
characteristics to winter survival, (e) compares planting
dates and different seeding–year harvest dates for seeding–
year forage production and effects on subsequent
winter survival and productivity, and (f) evaluates forage
production of established timothy under a broad array of
harvest schedules and frequencies, and compares the effects
of those harvest treatments on subsequent winter survival
and first–cut forage yield the following year.
All experiments were conducted at the University of
Alaska Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station’s
Matanuska Research Farm (61.6oN) near Palmer in
southcentral Alaska