Canada Thistle Management Systems for Sustainable and Organic Farms

Additionally, field studies were conducted on populations of USDA landrace and commercial sorghum accessions to evaluate morphological traits, regrowth potential, and suitability for cover cropping and biofuel applications. Canonical variates in Canonical Discriminant Analysis (CDA) indicated that the traits of unmowed tiller number, regrowth tiller number, and regrowth biomass were the most significant in discriminating between accessions. The accessions clustered into three subgroups. Three multi-stemmed accessions with an ability to regrow clustered away from the bulk of the USDA sorghums in CDA and scatterplots. Multi-stemmed accessions may be useful for breeding improved summer annual cover crops that are tall, produce copious amounts of biomass, and rapidly regrow after defoliation; although propensity to lodging, poor germination, and allelopathic potential may be problems. Additionally, several landrace sorghum accessions in the USDA germplasm collection may be useful for breeding cover crop and biofuel feedstocks, due to great height and biomass production, although it will be necessary to select for improved regrowth potential. Crosses between USDA landraces and the multi-stemmed accessions could lead to a sorghum cover crop and biofuel plant with great unmown biomass and height and ability to regrow following mowing.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Natural Resrouces and Environmental Sciences

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Bickler, Abram J.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Masiunas, John B.

• Biology, Botany

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3362731

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/83133