Performance of soybean due to variability in the spatial distribution of plants

The not uniform distribution of soybean plants in the sowing line can be detrimental to the agronomic performance of the crop. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of the variable spatial distribution of soybean plants in the sowing line on grain yield and yield components. The experiments were carried out in the Southwest of Paraná, São João and Itapejara D'Oeste cities, in the 2014/15 crop year. Five spatial distribution levels for plants were established for cultivars NS 5445 IPRO® and NS 5959 IPRO® (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% of the variation coefficient), with 0% being the equidistant distribution of plants in the sowing line, for a population of 300,000 plants ha. The other percentages include the variations adopted. The analyzed variables were plant height, first pod insertion, pods per plant, grains per plant, grains per pod, thousand grain mass, grain size by sieve analysis and grain yield. The adopted experimental design was random blocks with four replicates. No statistical difference was observed for the variable spatial distribution of plants in yield components, for both cultivars. The cultivar NS 5445 showed grain yield higher than the cultivar NS5959, in both places. The highest grain yield was observed in the municipality of São João. The variation in the spatial distribution of the plants in the sowing line did not influence the productivity of both cultivars, due to their phenotypic plasticity.