EFFECTS OF SEED RATE, ROW SPACING AND FERTILITY LEVELS ON YIELD ATTRIBUTES AND YIELD OF SOYBEAN UNDER TEMPERATE CONDITIONS

A field experiment was conducted at Shalimar Campus during Kharif seasons of 2004 and 2005 on a silty clay loam soil, medium in available N and K, low in available P to study the production performance of soybean as influenced by seed rate, row spacing and fertility levels under temperate conditions. The experiment comprising 27 treatment combinations viz., 3 levels each of seed rate (40, 60 and 80 kg ha-1), row spacing (30, 45 and 60 cm) and fertility (40:60:40, 60:90:60 and 80:120:80 of N: P2O5: K2O kg ha-1) was laid out in split plot design replicated thrice. Lower seed rate i.e. 40 kg ha-1 produced significantly higher number of branches plant-1, test weight, number of pods plant-1 and seeds pod-1. Contrary to this, seed and straw yield were found significantly superior under seed rate of 80 kg ha-1 over 40 kg ha-1. The extent of increase was 21.75 % for grain yield and 20.68 % for straw yield. Whereas row spacing of 45 cm proved significantly superior over 30 cm and remained at par with 60 cm for grain and straw yield. The extent of increase in grain yield at 45 cm row to row spacing was 13.14 % when compared to 30 cm row to row spacing. Application of N80 P120 K80 kg ha-1significantly improved the growth parameters viz., number of pods plant-1, grain and straw yield over N40 P60 K40 kg ha-1. The extents of increase were 12.5 % for grain yield and 7.36 % for straw yield