<i>Leucaena</i> interspecific hybrid ‘KX4-Hawaii’ as a source of agricultural biomass in a water-scarce small island developing state
'KX4-Hawaii' was successfully propagated <i>via</i> air layers and could be planted directly in the field with irrigation. All recorded growth and biomass yields were correlated with precipitation. However, the woody (lignified stems and branches) biomass was more responsive to precipitation than the green (leaves and green tender stems) biomass and made up a large fraction of the total biomass produced. 'KX4-Hawaii' was productive even under drought conditions and biomass yields per meter of hedgerow increased with closer spacings. Of the tested spacing treatments, 75 cm was optimum for a 4-month pruning interval under the conditions seen in Barbados as it produced similar yields to the 50 cm spacing treatment but would require less propagation material.
Authors
- Angela T. Alleyne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3517-9576)
- Francis B. Lopez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3406-063X)
- Jabarry R. Belgrave
- Jeff S. Chandler
Institutions
- University of the West Indies (BB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- PeerJ
- Published
- 2024-09-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.18201
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Agroforestry and silvopastoral systems
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.07