Crop Planting Pattern Effects on Early Growth and Canopy Shape of Cultivated and Wild Oats (Avena fatua)

Abstract

Field studies were conducted to determine the effects of cultivated oats planting pattern on early canopy shape and growth of cultivated oats and wild oats, in part to test the assumption of radial plant canopy expansion on which previous theoretical models of crop-weed interference models have been based. Cultivated oats density was kept constant as the pattern rectangularity was varied, and single wild oats plants were centered within each pattern. Individual plant canopies, photographed from above 31 days after emergence (DAE), were radial for wild oats in all crop planting patterns and for cultivated oats planted in triangular and square planting patterns. Canopy radius perpendicular to the crop row axis in rectangular patterns was similar to canopy radius along the same cardinal axis in equidistant patterns, but was reduced along the crop row axis, resulting in a rectangular canopy shape and decreased canopy area in rectangular compared to equidistant patterns. Cultivated oats dry weight and leaf area at crop flowering (64 DAE) also decreased with increasing rectangularity of crop planting pattern. Reductions in cultivated oats growth in rectangular patterns were associated with earlier intraspecific interference and delayed crop canopy closure in rectangular compared to equidistant patterns. Wild oats leaf area and tiller number 64 DAE decreased with more equidistant crop planting patterns, consistent with reduced canopy area 31 DAE and earlier crop canopy closure in equidistant patterns. The data suggest that individual oats canopy expansion during early growth is essentially radial and also support previous theoretical predictions of crop planting pattern effects on weed suppression.