INFLUENCE OF THE SEEDING RATE ON THE GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT AND YIELD OF WINTER WHEAT IN NO-TILL TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

Currently, in the South of Russia, field crops are increasingly grown using no-till technology, when the soil is not cultivated during all the years of its use. The purpose of the research is to determine the most effective seeding rate of winter wheat, which is cultivated using intensive no-till technology on ordinary chernozem in the unstable moisture zone of the Stavropol Territory. The research was conducted from 2020 to 2023 on the experimental field of the FSBSI “North Caucasus Federal Agricultural Research Centre”. It is found that an increase in the seeding rate from 2 to 6 million/ha leads to a decrease in field germination of seeds by 7,7%, raw top and the area of the photosynthetic apparatus of 1 plant – by 5,0 g, or 34,2%, and 62,5 cm² (39,0%). However, due to a significant increase in the plant density, which directly depends on the seeding rate, the top and photosynthetic potential increase significantly with a growth in the seeding rate from 2 to 5 million/ha by 1,789 g/m² (70,2%) and 848 thousand m²*day/ha, or 47,4%. The largest grain harvest is when sowing 3 million/ha, according to the intensive technology, which is the best in the no-till technology. At all seeding rates – the grain belongs to the quality class 3. However, when sowing 2 – 4 million/ha, the raw gluten content is 26,7 – 26,8%, approaching the grain of quality class 2 (27,0%), while when sowing 6 million/ha it is closer to the lower limit of the gradation – 25,8%.