EFFECTS OF METHOD, RATE AND TIME OF APPLICATION OF NITROGEN FERTILIZER ON SEED PRODUCTION OF TALL FESCUE

The production of seed of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreber) provides an opportunity to diversify the agriculture of the Peace region with a new, un-subsidized, soil-conserving, cash-crop. Nitrogen fertility and nutrition are major components of the production of any grass-seed crop. A field study was conducted on the nitrogen (N) fertilizer requirements for optimizing seed yield and quality of tall fescue grown in the Peace region. Row-crop stands (30-cm spacing) were established at four sites in two consecutive seeding years (1993 and 1994), with two consecutive seed crops being harvested from each stand. A total of 18 N fertilizer treatments was applied to the first seed crop, a factorial combination of two methods (surface-broadcast, granular, ammonium nitrate 34–0–0, and soil-injected 28–0–0 solution), three times (early- to mid-September, early- to mid-October, and early- to mid-April prior to the first seed harvest), and three rates (50, 100, and 150 kg ha−1 N). The second seed crop receive...