Abstract:
The field experiment was conducted to determine the effects of fertilizer types on plant characteristics, forage yield, seed yield and chemical composition of Rhodes grass (Chlories gayana) during 2018/2019 croping season at Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. The experiment was laid in a randomized complete block design. The treatments were: - T1, Control group, T2, Bio-slurry compost: 64 qt/ha, T3, NPS fertilizer: 100kg/ha, T4, Mixing of Bio-slurry with NPS ( 50%: 50%) with 4 replications giving a total of 16 plots, each measuring 4×2=8 m2. The data collected were morphological characteristics such as plant height, number of tillers per plant, leaf length per plant, leaf to stem ratio (LSR), number of leaves per plant, forage dry matter yield and chemical composition analysis of the forage sample at 90 days (50% of blooming stage) except seed yield at 3 weeks after full flowering stage. Samples of forages were weighed, dried and then ground sub samples taken for analyses of crude protein (CP), ash, dry matter (DM), acid detergent fiber (ADF), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL). All data were subjected to two way ANOVA procedures of SAS version 9.0. The results showed that the effects of organic and inorganic fertilizer had a significant (p<0.01) effect on all of morphological charactersics were better result with mixing of NPS and bioslurry fertilizer application than other treatments, but a lone of bioslurry and NPS fertilizers also almost similar result but less than in some extent from combined fertrilier treatment. Combining chemical fertilizers with bioslurry gave the highest DM yield (12.63 t/ha) of forage than sole bioslurry (11.8 t/ha) and sole chemical fertilizer (12.03 t/ha). And also combining chemical fertilizers with bioslurry gave the highest CP contents (11.25%) of forage than other treatments. Similarly, CP content was not significantly different among sole chemical fertilizer (10.34%