Abstract
A two-year experiment was conducted to investigate the responses of plant and litter dry weights of Pensacola bahiagrass swards to the nitrogen fertilization rates (0-80 g N/m^2/year) and cutting intervals (10.5-42 days). The plant and litter parts differed in the occurrence frequency of the significant responses to the treatments. On the seasonal basis, the significant main effect of the nitrogen rate appeared more frequently in leaf>stem>standing dead>stolon>belowground litter>root>surface litter. The significant main effect of the cutting interval occurred more frequently in leaf>stolon>stem and root>surface litter>standing dead and belowground litter. The significant interaction appeared more frequently in root>leaf>standing dead and belowground litter>stem, stolon and surface litter. The main effect of the nitrogen rate, when it was significant, took a tendency to raise the dry weights with increasing nitrogen rate in leaf, stem, standing dead and stolon, and took a reverse tendency in belowground litter. The main effect of the cutting interval, when it was significant, always took a trend to raise the dry weights with increasing cutting interval in ear, leaf, stem, standing dead and stolon. The present results, together with the results from the previous study which examined the responses to the cutting heights, revealed a diversity of responses of the plant and litter dry weights of bahiagrass swards to the management factors, from which some implications to the future studies were derived.
