Field establishment of Cenchrus grass pasture through seed pelleting

Sowing the individual seeds of grasses at proper depth and spacing is a great challenge. Low germination and high seedling mortality at an early stage is a general problem in the establishment of pasture. Spikelets (seed) of Cenchrus ciliaris were used for the formation of seed pellets viz. round shaped and cube-shaped and cloth pouch. Pelleting materials consisted of farm soil, clay and farm yard manure in a 2:1:1 ratio. The weight of one pellet ranged from 5 to 7 g which embedded 8-10 spikelets. Two sowing methods viz. dry sowing and normal sowing, were evaluated. Significant differences were observed in germination and other growth parameters for both sowing methods and types of pellets. The number of seedlings/pellet in dry sowing ranged from 2.5-4.5, while in normal sowing it ranged from 3.8-5.5. The highest plant stand per plot was recorded in cloth pouch (84.5) followed by cube-shaped pellet (75.7) and round-shaped pellet (71.1). Seedling mortality was high in the dry sowing method, irrespective of the type of pellets. Cloth pouches had an advantage over both types of pellets for plant stands, while cube-shaped pellets were found to be better when compared to round-shaped pellets.