Investigation of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) morphological parameters as influenced by seed rate and genotype

Abstract

Recently the interest in industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) as a multipurpose plant is growing up over Europe as well as in Lithuania and Latvia. Close to 50 thousand various products can be made from different parts (seed, leaves, panicles, stems, even roots) of this plant. More than 50 varieties of industrial hemp are allowed to be grown in the European Union, just the proper variety should be chosen depending on the country and growing purposes. Nevertheless, the yielding capacities of hemp depend on many factors such as the genotype, seed rate, growing technology, pedoclimatic conditions, etc. The investigation of hemp plant morphological parameters was carried out at the Upyt Experimental Station of the Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry in 2014. The data showed that both factors did not have significant influence on the total stem length, technical stem length and stem diameter of the tested varieties. Seed rate had a significant influence on the length of the flowering part of the plant (panicle) as well as on the ratio between the technical stem part and the stem diameter – very important index for fibre quantity and quality. In the plots sown at higher seed rate (70 kg·ha-1) the panicle was (0.29 m) significantly shorter than that (0.39 m) in the plots sown at lower seed rate (45 kg·ha-1). The plants sown at higher seed rate (70 kg·ha-1) had a higher (376.8) ratio between the technical stem length and stem diameter than that (319.7) sown at lower seed rate (45 kg·ha-1).