ARS | Publication request: ROW WIDTH AND TILLAGE EFFECTS ON SOYBEAN YIELD AND YIELD COMPONENTS

Submitted to: Agronomy Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: March 15, 1996
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: Tillage and row width options for doublecropped soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) production on the southeastern Coastal Plain were evaluated in 1994 and 1995. Treatments examined were surface tillage (disked and no surface tillage), row width (19 and 76 cm), soybean deep tillage (deep tilled before soybean planting and no deep tillage), and wheat [Triticum aestivum L.] deep tillage (deep tilled before planting previous wheat crop and no deep tillage). Treatment means for seed yield ranged from 1713 to 6571 kg/ha. Over years and treatments, seed yield was highly correlated with seed number (r=0.98), but less so with seed weight (r=0.55). Reducing the row width increased seed yields an average of 53 and 83% over all treatments and years for the soybean in the disked and no-surface-tillage plots, respectively. Reducing the row width more than doubled the plant population but only decreased seed yield per plant an average of 22%. Data indicate that seed yield increases due to deep tillage and no surface tillage are greater and more consistent when soybean is planted using narrow row widths on the Coastal Plain.