Yield and competition in barley variety mixtures

Competition between spring barley varieties and yield performance of two-, three and four-variety mixtures were studied in two replacement series field experiments. In the first experiment, repeated in three successive years (1983 —85) the components were the six-row varieties Agneta, Arra, Hja-673 and Porno. In the second experiment (1984), including two nitrogen doses (50 and 100 kgN/ha), both six-row (Agneta, Pomo) and two-row (Ida, Kustaa) varieties were used. Arra in the first and Agneta in the second experiment were the most competitive varieties. The results suggested that the fast growth of Arra at the beginning promoted its competitive ability. Increase in available nitrogen usually strengthened the competitiveness of Agneta. The observed competitive differences between varieties were not related to the earliness of a variety, neither to the morphological characters (two- and six-row varieties) nor to the grain yield of a variety grown alone. The competitive ability was not always a stable character, the dominant suppression relationship varying from one environment to another (e.g. growing season, nitrogen dose). The observed overyielding was not statistically significant. The ratio of actual to expected yield and the relative yield total of several mixtures exceeded slightly one. As a conclusion, the yield advantage of mixtures was marginal. As a rule, the mixtures were not more stable than monocultures as determined by the coefficient of variation. However, the yield of some mixtures varied less than the yield of the most stable monoculture