INDEX OF HORIZONTALITY AND REMOVAL OF TISSUES FROM MARANDU PALISADE GRASS

Abstract Possibly, the greater availability of nutrients in the soil will promote a more pronounced modification of the growth form of forage plant under high frequency of defoliation. To test this hypothesis, we characterized the changes in the growth form of Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu syn. Urochloa brizantha cv. Marandu (marandu palisade grass) submitted to cutting intervals and fertilization, as well as the effect of these modifications on the forages removed and remnant from the cut. This study was carried out in two experimental periods. In each period, independent yet similar in nature experiments were performed. In Experiment 1, from October 2013 to February 2014, marandu palisade grass was fertilized with 70 kg.ha-1 of N and 50 kg.ha-1 of P2O5 and cut intervals (7, 14, 28, 56, and 112 days) were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with four replications. In Experiment 2, from November 2014 to March 2015, in addition to the same cut intervals evaluated in Experiment 1, two fertilization conditions were also studied, one of which was low (50 kg.ha-1 of P2O5 and 75 kg.ha-1 of N) and another one that was high (100 kg.ha-1 of P2O5 and 300 kg.ha-1 of N). In Experiment 2, a factorial scheme with two levels of fertilization and five levels of cut intervals was used in a randomized block design with four replications. In Experiment 1, the highest indexes of horizontality (IH) occurred (p