Effect of Cutting Size and Different Doses of Nitrogen on Growth and Biomass of Salix alba in Nursery Stock

The field trials on Salix alba were conducted during 2015–16. A curvilinear relationship was observed when rates of nitrogen application were regressed with total biomass yield. It indicated that application of 150 kg N ha⁻¹ was adequate to get optimum yield from cutting sizes. This signified that Salix responded significantly to N application @ 150 kg N ha⁻¹ and resulted in 27.66 and 76.74 percent increase in total biomass yield of 0.5–1.5 cm and 1.5–2.5 cm cutting sizes respectively. The growth of Salix with cutting size of 1.5–2.5 cm was found to be more superior as compared to 0.5–1.5 cm cutting size. Results show that the stock-1 vigour index increases when nitrogen doses from 50–200 kg N ha were applied. The impact is more noticeable from 50–150 kg N ha⁻¹ rather than 150–200 kg N ha⁻¹.