Influence of different fertilization level of zinc sulphate and plant density on the breakage susceptibility of triticale seeds

Abstract

In order to determine the effects of different fertilization level of zinc sulphate and plant density on the breakage susceptibility of triticale seeds an experiment was conducted during 2011 growing season, at the experimental research station of Lorestan University, Iran. A factorial experiment was conducted with 3×3 treatments and three replications in a completely randomized block design (CRBD). Factors included three plant densities (200, 300 and 400 plants/m2) and three levels of zinc sulphate (0 - control, 40 and 60 kg/ha). The harvested seeds were then subjected to impact energies of 0.05 and 0.1 J at constant moisture content of 15% using an impact test apparatus. The analysis of variance showed that fertilization level of zinc sulphate (at the 1% probability level), plant density (at the 5% level) and interaction between two variables (at the 5% level) significantly influenced breakage susceptibility of triticale seeds. The average values of percentage breakage of seeds decreased from 32.592 to 16.9268% as the fertilization level of zinc sulphate increased from 0 to 60kg/ha. As the plant density increased from 200 to 400 plants/m2 the percentage breakage of seeds decreased from 27.942 to 21.350%. Increasing the impact energy from 0.05 to 0.1 J caused an increase in the percentage breakage of seeds from 14.07 to 36.9%.