The influence of cultivar and soil type on performance of lucerne in the Victorian Mallee

Abstract

The production and persistence of nine cultivars of lucerne were studied at the Mallee Research Station, Walpeup, Victoria, over three seasons. Hunter River, Siro Peruvian, and African lucerne were similar in yield, but Siro Peruvian was less persistent. The superior yield of these three cultivars over two accessions of Flandria, Du Puits, and Socheville was largely due to their greater winter production. Two lines of Canadian creeping-rooted lucerne were found to be entirely unsuited to this district. Hunter River and Siro Peruvian lucerne were also compared on a sand and a sandy loam soil at Walpeup. The relative production of the two cultivars was the same on the two soil types but the effect of soil type was marked. The production and persistence of lucerne grown on the sand was far superior to that on the sandy loam.