Tuesday, November 14, 2006
154-2

Skip-Row Configuration and Plant Density for Rainfed Grain Sorghum in Nebraska.

A. Abunyewa, R. Ferguson, S. Mason, and C. Wortmann. Univ of Nebraska, 373 Plant Science, Dept of Agronomy & Horticulture, Lincoln, NE 68583

A research study was conducted in 2005 at University of Nebraska South Central Agricultural Laboratory to evaluate the effect of skip row configuration, plant population density and different sources of nitrogen on grain sorghum yield and quality. The treatment design was three skip row configurations, solid planting where every row is planted (S1), plant one row/skip one row (S2), and plant two rows/skip two rows (S3), two population densities, 30,000 (P1) and 60,000 (P2) plants per acre, and two sources of nitrogen, ammonium nitrate and composted beef manure applied at the rate 90 lb/acre. Soil moisture status was recorded hourly with Watermark sensors installed at 15 and 45cm depth and weekly by neutron probe in access tubes installed to 120cm depth. On each skip row, lower population gave significantly higher panicle yield than higher population. Main treatment effect of skip row showed that on a row by row basis, S2 had significantly higher (15%) grain yield than S3 and 53% higher grain yield than S1, while S3 had 33% higher grain yield than S1. Grain yield on an area basis ranged from 12 to 8 Mg/ha in a decreasing order of S1>S2>S3. Both S2 and S3 had significantly higher grain weight per panicle and higher 100 seed weight than S1. Volumetric water content was higher in P1 than in P2 and in S3 than in S1. 

Handout (.pdf format, 646.0 kb)

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