Effects of Different Cereal Rye Seeding Rates, Cotton Seeding Rates, Planter Type, and Working Speeds on No-Till Cotton

Abstract

No-till cotton producers are focused on saving resources by reducing planting rates, while maintaining yields. A 3-year field experiment was conducted in Shorter, Alabama, USA, to evaluate cotton planted into a roll/crimped cereal rye cover crop seeded at rates of 50 and 101 kg ha−1. Cotton planter performance was also compared between a mechanical planter and an electronic planter at speeds of 5.6 and 11.2 km h−1 along with low and high cotton planting rates (90,193 and 180,387 seeds ha−1). Results indicate that cereal rye seeding rates did not affect its biomass. The emergence rate index (ERI) was influenced by the planter type at the 5.6 km h−1 speed with a higher ERI (9.70% day−1) for the mechanical planter compared to a lower ERI (9.05% day−1) for the electronic planter. The cotton population was proportional to planting rates generating 66,650 and 114,178 plants ha−1 at low and high rates. Standard deviation (STD) of cotton plant spacing had a lower STD for the electronic planter compared to the mechanical planter, but did not affect the cotton yield. The seed cotton yield was not dependent on the cover crop seeding rate, planter type, and speed, but differed among years. Drought in 2019 caused a yield reduction (1844 kg ha−1) compared to higher yields of 3981 kg ha−1 in 2018 and 4152 kg ha−1 in 2020.