Association of Agrometeorologists

Agrometeorological indices of white clover (Trifolium repens) in western Himalayas

RAKESH KUMAR , MUNISH KAUNDAL , S.K. VATS and SANJAY KUMAR

Field experiments were conducted during 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 to study the growth performance of white clover (Trifolium repens L.) under different temperature regimes over the crop growth period. The agroclimatic indices for temperature viz., growing degree days (GDD), heliothermal units (HTU) and photothermal units (PTU) were computed for different phenological stages of the crop. Changes in weather parameters concomitant to different sowing time caused significant variation in the performance of the crop. The results indicated that the early sown crop had longer crop span (205 days) than the late sown (142 days). From emergence to seed maturity, white clover accumulated GDD of 2314±72 °C days, HTU of 17791±409 °C days hour and PTU of 29412±742 °C days hour, respectively. Positive correlations were found between fresh leaf weight, fresh stem weight and fresh root weight for GDD, HTU and PTU.

White clover, phenophases, heat units, heliothermal unit, photothermal unit.