Optimum Seeding Date for Winter Wheat in Southwestern Saskatchewan

Abstract

Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in southern Alberta on the Canadian Prairies has traditionally been grown on bare fallow. Recently, the improved winterhardy cultivar Norstar and improved management recommendations, such as seeding directly into stubble or into chemical fallow, have encouraged producers to adapt this crop to the colder climate of southern Saskatchewan. The objective of the experiments reported herein was to determine if the optimum time for seeding winter wheat on stubble and chemical fallow differed from that recommended for seeding on conventional fallow in southern Alberta. A 4‐yr study of stubble‐seeded wheat and 3‐yr study of wheat seeded on chemical fallow were carried out on a medium‐textured soil at Swift Current and on a coarse‐textured soil at Cantuar (only the stubble treatment). The results for stubble‐seeded wheat confirmed that both plant population and yields decreased sharply by 40 to 60% and 30 to 40%, respectively, as seeding was delayed after the first week of September until very late October. The decrease in plant population was less pronounced on the sandy loam soil (40%) than on the silt loam soil (56%). On chemical fallow, there was a gradual decrease in plant population but grain yield did not decrease until seeding was delayed to mid‐October. Test weight was reduced (about 8%) by delayed seeding, and plants took 10 to 13 d dlonger to mature, which facilitated disease (e.g., rust) infestation. Grain protein concentration was not affected by time of seeding. For optimum results in southwestern Saskatchewan, winter wheat can be seeded into chemical fallow until early October but should be seeded in stubble by mid‐September.

Location, Seeding Date, and Variety Interactions on Winter Wheat Yield in Southeastern United States

“…1c, 1f, and 2i). Overall, these results were consistent with fi ndings from Subedi et al (2007) and McLeod et al (1992), who measured yield reductions up to 40% from late seeding. Th ey also observed that yield losses were exacerbated by low water holding capacity of sandy loam soils, which were similar to soils at the southern location.…”

“…Among the factors that can be controlled by the producer, seeding date is one of the most important because of its impact on productivity (Campbell et al, 1991;McLeod et al, 1992;Sun et al, 2007). Th e choice of seeding date and cultivar might reduce the risk of frost at anthesis, meet vernalization requirements, and favor the accumulation of temperature and precipitation by the plant throughout the growing season.…”

Seeding depth, rate and row spacing for winter wheat grown on stubble and chemical fallow in the semiarid prairies

“…For tlree successive years (1985-1986, 1986_1987, 1987-1988) Seeding was performed with a Swift Current offset zerotill disc drill (Dyck and Tessier 1986) at the optimum time for seeding winter wheat (Fowler 1986;Mcleod et al 1992) (Zadoks et al 1974) by counting the number of surviving plants in five representative l-m sections of row in each plot. Grain (Tables l-3) varied considerably withyear, values-being generally highest in 1987-1988 and lowest in 1985-1986.…”

Adjusting Sowing Dates Improved Potato Adaptation to Climate Change in Semiarid Region, China

“…Since sowing date is one of the most important management factors affecting crop production and quality [33,34], determinations of appropriate sowing dates for various crops in different regions were documented in some previous literatures (e.g., Chen and Chen [35]; Dennett et al [36]; Olasantan and Bello [37]; Sharma et al [38]). Most of these studies determined the appropriate sowing dates through analyzing the relationship between the sowing date and yields in the years of trial, so these results might be affected by the environmental conditions (e.g., temperature, rainfall) in the trial years.…”