DETERMINING THE FORAGE YIELD, QUALITY AND NUTRITIONAL ELEMENT CONTENTS OF QUINOA CULTIVARS AND CORRELATION ANALYSIS ON THESE PARAMETERS

Abstract

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.), preferred especially by cattle, is generally grown for its seeds, while it may also be grown for its green leaves. This study aimed to determine the seed and leaf yields, quality and nutritional element contents of different quinoa cultivars that are grown in the Bilecik region in Turkey. The relationships among the leaf and seed yields, quality, nutritional values and nutritional contents were investigated via simple correlations, and it was aimed to determine the characteristics that may be selection criteria for yield. This study was conducted in 2017 in the field of Biotechnology Research and Application at Bilecik Seyh Edebali University. As a result of the study, the highest green leaf yield, dry matter yield and crude protein yield were found respectively as 1387.46 kg da(-1), 454.42 kg da(-1) and 61.90 kg da(-1) and the highest Ca, K nutritional element values were found respectively as 12.73 and 33.43 g kg(-1) DM in the A Heloud cultivar. In the region's conditions, it was found that the most suitable cultivars for forage yield and dry matter yield were A Heloud, Innia and Pasankalla. Correlation relationships among 18 morphologic characteristics of the quinoa cultivars were tested on the studied samples. Statistically significant and very significant differences were found between individual traits, expressed by phenotypic correlation coefficients.