The yield of green phytomass of Siplhium perfoliatum L., newly-introduced energy crop tested on marginal heavy soils under Central European continental climate

This research was focused on a production potential of cup plant Silphium perfoliatum L. grown in marginal heavy soils with the following intensity of mineral nutrition: (i) intensive 245.0 kg/ha NPK, (ii) semi-intensive 122.5 kg/ha NPK and (iii) untreated control 0.0 kg/ha NPK. The large-scale pilot field experiments with ÓVÁRI-ÓRIÁS cultivar were carried out on 2 sites under semi-humid to humid Central European temperate climate during 4 years. Overall, it was achieved 13.59 t/ha of dry matter yield on average and the yields varied from 2.37 t/ha to 42.56 t/ha. During the three productive years (2018 – 2020) the crop yield was affected mainly by years (F-ratio 70.67, P-value 0.00), then by nutrition (F-ratio 30.50, P-value 0.00), followed by sites (F-ratio 1.92, P-value 0.17) and finally by replications (F-ratio 0.00, P-value 1.00). In general, cup plant productivity was increasing by a higher number of utility years and similarly, by increasing of nutrition intensity. Although the effect of the sites seems to be almost negligible, the present study does not include sites with arid or semi-arid climate, where the crop productivity may be completely different, especially if the soils are easy soils with an already drying water regime. This study focused on cup plant is probably one of first original research papers published as study based on large-scale experiments conducted in Slovakia, the crop is recognized as suitable perennial crop for energy as other purposes and therefore further agronomic as follow-up studies are needed.