Vol. 12, Issue 12 (2023)

Author(s):
AG Faltankar, SV Damame and HP Pardeshi

Abstract:
The present investigation was carried out to find out the soil application of silicon dioxide on forage quality in relation to lodging tolerance in oat genotypes. Initially, in the pot culture experiment, two each lodging and non-lodging type oat cultivars were compared based on quality parameters. The crude protein, acid detergent fibres, neutral detergent fibre, lignin, total minerals, potassium and silica were higher in non-lodging cultivars than lodging, whereas in vitro dry matter digestibility was higher in lodging than non-lodging type cultivars. Under field conditions, the effects of silicon dioxide application @ 200 kg ha^-1 and 400 kg ha^-1 on forage quality were evaluated in twelve different oat genotypes. The silica application to soil increased crude protein content in all oat genotypes. With the increase in levels of silica application, the cell wall constituents, ADF, NDF, and lignin were increased over the control treatment. After silica application, the highest lignin synthesizing oat genotypes were JO-03-91, RO-11-1-4, RO-11-1-2, UPO-212, and JO-2. The increased levels of silica application resulted in to decrease in IVDMD in all oat genotypes. The total minerals and potassium content were increased with the increased levels of silica application than control. With the increase in levels of silicon dioxide in the soil, the Si content in forage oat was increased. Among the 12 genotypes, the promising genotypes, JO-03-91, followed by RO-11-1-4 and JO-2 were found for lodging tolerance.