Season and appropriate method of Red Clover species (Trifolium pratense L.) establishment in the Steppe Rangelands of Mazandaran.

In program of increasing forage production in rangelands of the country, gathering and deepening knowledge of forage plants establishment is necessary. So seeds of Trifolium pratense species prepared from Sari city market and cultivated. The purpose of this study was to determine the optimal season and efficient method of species establishment for rangeland breeding in steppe rangelands. Experiment was performed in Posht-kooh water spreading station with 350 mm precipitation and semi-arid-cold climate. For this purpose, two sowing treatments including of seeding and seed spacing in two cultivation season of fall and spring, in split plot based on completely randomize block design in three repetitions were performed. Results indicated that there was a significant difference at (p<0.01) between the cultivation season and two cultivation methods. Germination and viability in fall season (39.11% germination, 13.83% viability) were more preferable to spring cultivation (30.06% germination, 11.83% viability). Seed cultivation in seeding (germination 39.22%, 14.78% viability) was also superior to seed spacing (29.94% germination, 10.89% viability). According to the obtained results, fall cultivation and seeding method were better than spring cultivation and seed spacing method. There is possibility of breeding rangelands in similar climatic and physical properties of the rangelands at the test site as well as fall cultivation and seeding method to increase forage production and direct grazing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]