Effect of some Agronomic Practices on Productivity of Egyptian Clover

This investigation was carried in an administration field in Belbais, Sharkia Governorate for two seasons (2009/2010 – 2010/2011) to find out the effect of mixing seeds of rye (25% of solid) and berseem (100% or 75% of solid) on their forage yield and quality under two N (0 and 30 kg N / fad) and three P (0, 23 and 46 kg P2O5 / fad) levels using the multi-cut berseem cultivar Meskawy. Four cuts were taken where the individual and total population performances were recorded and hence the seasonal forage yield and quality were determined.Mixing rye with berseem as 25% of the former and 100% of the latter was effective to improve the growth and hence the yield of the total population in the first three cuts and hence did increase the seasonal fresh and dry forage yields/fad. Rye suffered from an intensive competition from berseem whereas the latter had a passive role in this respect on the former. Mixing was on the expense of forage quality as the pure stand of berseem had higher quality criteria than the two mixing patterns. Therefore, the increase of sown proportion of berseem from 75% to 100% did compensate for the decrease of forage quality. Addition of N and the increase of P level played a complementary improving role in this respect. Significant interactions could be detected particularly between mixing treatments and phosphorus levels, indicating the need for more P addition in the mixed than in the pure stands in order to maximise their yield and quality.