Determination of seed rate of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) varieties with varying seed size

Abstract

An experiment was conducted with three seed rates (100, 120 and 140 Kg ha^-1) and five varieties (BARI Gom 24, BARI Gom 25, BARI Gom 26, BARI Gom 27 and BARI Gom 28) in the rabi season of 2012-13 in the research field of Wheat Research Centre, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Dinajpur, Bangladesh to determine the optimum seed rate for newly released varieties. As factorial arrangement the experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. All agronomic practices were applied as per recommendation. The highest grain yield was found in BARI Gom 26, which is medium sized seeded variety. The bolded seeded variety BARI Gom 24 and BARI Gom 25 failed to produce higher grain yield due to lower number of spikes per m² and lower number of grains per spike. A seed rate of 140 kg ha^-1 produced the highest yield traits and grain yield across all the varieties, but there was no statistical difference with the seed rate of 120 kg ha^-1. The performance of yield traits and yield of the wheat varieties varied with the seeding rates. Therefore, the seed rate of the variety BARI Gom 24, BARI Gom 26 and BARI Gom 28 can be considered as 140 kg seed ha^-1 and the variety BARI Gom 25 and BARI Gom 27 can be considered as 120 kg seed ha^-1.