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Water Injection at Seeding of Winter Wheat 1
Author(s) -
Noori Fariborz,
Bolton Floyd E.,
Moss Dale N.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj1985.00021962007700060017x
Subject(s) - seeding , agronomy , yield (engineering) , soil water , germination , growing season , poaceae , water use , environmental science , zoology , biology , soil science , materials science , metallurgy
Often wheat ( Triticum aestivum L. em Thell) is grown in areas of limited rainfall, and stand establishment can be a serious production problem when seeding is done in dry soil. These experiments were designed to measure the effect of injecting small amounts of water into the soil seed zone at seeding on the germination, stand establishment, and yield of winter wheat. The experiments were done in the 1979–1980, 1980–1981, and the 1981–1982 growing seasons on a mixed mesic Typic Haploxeroll soil. The soil water potential at seeding was −1.1 MPa in 1979–1980, −0.9 MPa in 1980–1981 and −0.6 MPa in 1981–1982. Water injection rates were either 0, 20,. 40, 50, or 60 mL water/m row. Compared with the 0 rate, injection of any amount of water resulted in faster germination, most treatments gave denser stands, and all but one treatment in one year resulted in greater grain yields. Injection of 50 mL water/m row in 1979–1980 resulted in a 16% yield increase. In 1980–1981 injection of 20 mL water/m row gave a 4% greater yield than the check and injection of 40 mL water/m row gave a 33% yield increase. The soils were wetter in the 1981–1982 growing season and there was no difference between 20, 40, and 60 mL water/m row injection rates; all gave yield increases of 21 to 29%.