The Growth and Ripening Characteristics of Amaranthus tricolor according to Cultivation in Subalpine Area
Background : Amaranthus is a cosmopolitan genus of annual or short-lived perennial plants. Some amaranth species are cultivated as leaf vegetables, pseudocereals, and ornamental plants. Most of the species from Amaranthus are summer annual weeds and are commonly referred to as pigweed. Approximately 60 species are recognized, with inflorescences and foliage ranging from purple and red to green or gold. Members of this genus share many characteristics and uses with members of the closely related genus Celosia. Amaranthus shows a wide variety of morphological diversity among and even within certain species. This study was conducted to evaluate the growth characteristics and grain yield of Amaranthus under subalpine area(altitude 510m) Methods and Results : Six resources(GR-1∼6) were tested in this experiment. Its seedlings were sown at 21. March. and raised for 27 days in nursery bed. The days after sowing for emerging 80% seedlings was 14∼18 days and No. of leaves was 4.5∼5.2 ea./plant. Plant height of GR-4 was highest at 15.2㎝ in nursery period. These seedlings transplanted at 19. April in the planting density of 80×30㎝. The range of heading date was 25. May∼7. June. GR-1, 2 showed more early heading at 25. May but heading date of GR-6 was 7. June. The Flowering date of Amaranthus cultivated in subalpine area was 20∼28. June. Plant height at flowering time of GR-4 was significantly high at 152.7㎝ comparison with 95.2㎝ of GR-1 but No. of branches in GR-4 was lowest at 7.5 ea/plant. The length of ears was shortest 28.8 ㎝ in GR-5 compared 41.0㎝ of GR-4. Grain yield of Amaranthus harvested at 8. July showed significantly difference according to gene resources and the highest yield of grain was 556.8㎏ in GR-1 Conclusion : The growth and ripening characteristics of Amaranthus tricolor showed many difference under subalpine cultivation according to gene resources. The predictable grain yield of Amaranthus under subalpine cultivation was 240.0∼556.8㎏/10a according to gene resources and their cultivation period demanded 80 days.