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Radiation Interception and Yield Response to Increased Leaflet Number in Early‐Maturing Soybean Genotypes
Author(s) -
Seversike Thomas M.,
Purcell Larry C.,
Gbur Edward,
Chen Pengyin,
Scott Roy
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
crop science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.76
H-Index - 147
eISSN - 1435-0653
pISSN - 0011-183X
DOI - 10.2135/cropsci2007.08.0472
Subject(s) - leaflet (botany) , biology , cultivar , interception , yield (engineering) , population , horticulture , growing season , photosynthetically active radiation , irrigation , agronomy , botany , photosynthesis , ecology , materials science , demography , sociology , metallurgy
Early‐maturing soybean [ Glycine max (L.) Merr.] cultivars require less irrigation than full‐season cultivars and may mature before drought periods most often occur in the midsouthern United States. These cultivars require high plant‐population densities for radiation interception and acceptable yields, which increase costs. We hypothesized that seven‐leaflet genotypes would have greater leaf area per plant, resulting in more radiation interception and higher yield than near‐isogenic three‐leaflet genotypes at similar populations. Near‐isogenic lines from maturity groups 00 to 1.8 were seeded at rates from 4 to 80 m −2 The fraction of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) intercepted by plots was measured using digital imagery and used to estimate cumulative intercepted PAR (CIPAR). Although seven‐leaflet isolines had greater leaf area per leaf than three‐leaflet isolines, leaf area per plant was similar between three‐ and seven‐leaflet isolines because the three‐leaflet isolines had a slightly greater number of main‐stem leaves than seven‐leaflet isolines. Generally, seven‐leaflet isolines had 10 to 21% greater CIPAR at populations ≤40 m −2 compared to three‐leaflet isolines. At populations ≤20 m −2 , seven‐leaflet isolines generally had higher yields than three‐leaflet isolines, but yields at these low populations were inherently low and agronomically unacceptable.