DENSIDAD DE SIEMBRA DEL GIRASOL FORRAJERO.

With the objective of promoting sunflower as a forage crop, planting densities of 75.000, 100.000, 125.000 y 150.000 plants.ha-1 were evaluated on biomass yield for cattle feeding. Data was taken at the beginning of blooming time. A complete randomized blocks design was used. The ANOVA showed that planting density significantly (p≤0.05) modified the sunflower biomass yield. At 75.000 plants.ha-1, plants showed the highest values per plant in stem diameter (1.18 cm), leaf dry weight (30.3 g), stem dry weight (50.7 g), and plant total dry weight (98.4 g); in addition, the leaf:stem ratio was always smaller than 0.70. On the other hand, with 150.000 plants.ha-1, the highest values per hectare were obtained in plant height (102.3 cm), leaf dry weight (3.3 t.ha-1), stem dry weight (4.8 t.ha-1), and plant total dry weight (9.5 t.ha-1). Thus, the highest planting density, affected negatively the biomass per plant, while the biomass per hectare was positively affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]