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Planting Date and Seed Treatment Effects on Soybean in the Northeastern United States
Author(s) -
Cox William J.,
Shields Elson,
Cherney Jerome H.
Publication year - 2008
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/agronj2008.0015
Subject(s) - sowing , point of delivery , agronomy , biology , fungicide , yield (engineering) , horticulture , metallurgy , materials science
Soybean [ Glycine max (L.) Merr.] production is limited in the northeastern United States so research on optimum planting date is scarce. Soybean production in this region may increase because of biodiesel demand so we initiated a 2‐yr study in New York that compared soybean planting dates with and without seed‐applied fungicide/insecticide treatments. Soybean planted in mid‐ compared with late May had a longer emergence time (15 and 6 d) and lower plant densities (35.6 and 39.5 plants m −2 ), but produced more pods side branch −1 (7.4 and 5.5), which contributed to more pods plant −1 (30.9 and 25.7) and pods m −2 (1079 and 958, respectively). The late compared with mid‐May planting date, however, had more seeds pod −1 (2.28 and 2.19), which contributed to similar seeds m −2 (2180 and 2357) and seed yield (3.8 and 3.9 Mg ha −1 , respectively). Soybean planted in mid‐June compared with mid‐May had more plants m −2 (38.0) but fewer pods side branch −1 (3.4), pods plant −1 (22.5), pods m −2 (879), seeds m −2 (1 910), and lower seed yield (3.5 Mg ha −1 ). Seed treatments did not affect plant density, pod density, and seed yield, but had inconsistent effects on seeds pod −1 , seeds m −2 , and seed mass. The results of this study indicate that there is a fairly broad optimum planting date range and that insecticide/fungicide seed treatment is not required for soybean production in the northeastern United States, but more research is necessary to corroborate these findings.