High wheat seeding rates and plant density do not go hand in hand

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

15-9-2006

Conference Title

Australian Society of Agronomy 13th Annual Conference 2006: Groundbreaking Stuff

Place of Publication

Perth, WA

Keywords

Seeding rate; plant density; weed competition

Disciplines

Agricultural Science | Agronomy and Crop Sciences

Abstract

Adoption of higher seed rates by farmers as part of an integrated weed management strategy is becoming more widely accepted but higher seed rates do not always result in the corresponding expected high plant density populations. Existing experimental data from variety specific wheat agronomy experiments were used to examine the influence of crop management factors on crop establishment. An analysis of these field trials in the Northern and Central Agricultural Regions over a number of years revealed that the percentage of crop plants established varied with time of sowing and seed rate. We found that: i) for time of sowing the effect was significant more often on lighter textured soils; ii) greater plant density was generally associated with the optimum sowing window; iii) an increased seed rate decreased the percentage of crop plants that established; and iv) with increasing seed rates there was an expanding variation in the actual plant densities achieved. These findings imply that higher seed rates will not always produce high crop densities sufficient enough to exert competition against weeds. While some of these observations may have already been reported, further research is needed to establish the reliability of using high plant densities to control weeds which has been touted as an important non herbicide integrated weed management tool.

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