Influence of sowing dates and seeding rates on productivity and grain quality of the Univer winter bread wheat variety

Abstract

In the southern zone of Rostov region there were studied seeding rates (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 million pcs/ha) and sowing dates (the 10th, 20th, 30th of September, the 10th of October) of Univer soft winter wheat variety according to various forecrops (black fallow and sunflower). The research was carried out in 2020-2021. It has been established that according to the studied predecessors, the Univer variety shows a tendency to form the highest grain yield in the late sowing periods (September, the 30th and October, the 10th): significantly higher by 0.43-0.73 t/ha in comparison with the control sowing on September, the 20th. It was determined that, regardless of the sowing date, according to the «black fallow» predecessor the maximum productivity of 6.33-7.13 t/ha had been obtained with seeding rates of 4 and 5 million pcs/ha, and 4.16-4.80 t/ha with seeding rates of 6 and 7 million pcs/ha when sown after sunflower. The least productivity but the highest protein and gluten percentage in the variety was identified in the variant with the minimum seeding rate (1 million pcs/ha) and was 5.08-6.09 t/ha sown after the black fallow with 13.7-14.3 and 25.0-26.0 %, respectively; 3.00-3.59 t/ha sown after sunflower with 13.6-14.0 and 22.9-24.3 %, respectively. With a sowing rate increase, high productivity was due to the number of productive stems. When sown after black fallow, the greatest economic effect of Univer variety was obtained when sown on the 10th of September with a seeding rate of 5 million pcs/ha. When sowing in later dates, there was an increase of efficiency of lower seeding rates of 2, 3 and 4 million pcs/ha. When sown after sunflower, there was a high economic effect with seeding rates of 5, 6 and 7 million pcs/ha at all sowing dates.