Does increasing plant densities of canola increase yield?
May 28, 2024What did we learn?
- Significant yield improvements were evident when moving from 15 to 40 plants/m2.
- As expected, the impact of the environment has the greatest impact on yield, followed by variety choice.
Clearfield, Truflex + Clearfield and Truflex hybrids commonly had the highest returns across all three locations and triazine tolerant hybrids outperformed the two open pollinated (OP) varieties.
Six different herbicide technologies at three population targets (15, 25 and 40 plants/m2) across three diverse locations in Western Australia were evaluated in 2022. The trials compared 14 hybrids and 2 OP triazine tolerant varieties.
Does it increase yield?
Figure 1: Across all sites and varieties there was a significant increase in yield when plant density increased from 15 to 40 plants/m2.
Increasing plant densities didn’t necessarily translate to higher gross returns. Due to the impacts of environment and variety choice, the increased yield at higher plant densities did not always offset the increased seed cost.
How important is plant density?
Figure 2: The biggest impact on yield was the environment, followed by variety choice. Figure shows percentage impact on yield by factor.
When looking across all three sites it’s clear environment followed by variety choice has the greatest level of impact on yield. When looking at single sites, the impact of plant densities has the greatest impact at Corrigin which had the highest rainfall of all three sites.
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TSM Contact Details: Andrew Heinrich 0473 520 818 or andrew.heinrich@advantaseeds.com