Abstract
The property of dry matter production was compared among each seven clonal line which had different specific leaf weight (SLW) in the two varieties, Kitamidori and Latar. The planting density was 45cm×20cm. Sampling was done three times before 1st cutting. The results were summerized as follows: 1. Remarkable difference was found between varieties in leaf length, and also there was difference in leaf area. Latar had usually higher leaf area than that of Kitamidori. Kitamidori showed higher SLW than Latar at the early stage of growth, but there was no varietal difference at the late stage of growth. Thus it was assumed that Latar had higher dry matter yield than that of Kitamidori (Table 1). 2. The dry matter yield correlated with leaf area, but this correlation was decreased following the growth. Between the dry matter yield and SLW, there was negative significant correlation at the early stage of growth, but there wasn't significant correlation at the late stage of growth. Small SLW and large leaf area at the early stage of growth, but large SLW at the late stage of growth would be favorable for the dry matter production (Fig.1, Table 2). 3. The dry matter yield indicated negative correlation with the number of tillers, but positive correlation with the weight of a tiller. But there was positive correlation between the dry matter yield and the number of heading tillers. The large tiller weight and the many heading tiller numbers should contribute to higher dry matter production. The dry matter yield also correlated with some characters relating the light distribution within canopy as leaf length (Table 3).
