GRAIN YIELD AND ITS COMPONENTS UNDER DIFFERENT SOWING DENSITIES

Abstract

The soybean yield is influenced by many factors that modify its development, among them the sowing density is a factor little studied, which besides effects on grain yield can cause economic resources. This work had the objective to evaluate the effect of different sowing density on yield components and grain yield of Monsoy 8372 IPRO cultivar in no till system on the northern of Mato Grosso state. The experiment was carried out under completely randomized design with four replications and six treatments. The treatments consisted of different sowing densities: 8 seeds m-1 (177.7 thousand plants ha-1); 8.6 seeds m-1 (191.1 thousand plants ha-1); 10.7 seeds m-1 (237.7 thousand plants ha-1); 11.5 seeds m-1 (255.5 thousand plants ha-1); 12.8 seeds m-1 (284.4 thousand plants ha-1); and 15.2 seeds m-1 (337 thousand plants ha-1). The following characteristics were assessed: number of branches per plant, number of grains per pod, number of pods per plant, thousand grain weight and grain yield. Only the number of pods per plant was affected by the treatments, decreasing the number of pods per plant with increasing sowing density, but without effect on grain yield. For the Monsoy 8372 cultivar the increase on plant population reduce the number of pods per plant and does not change the yield, therefore not justified, as management strategy.