ChileanJAR

During the 1982/83 and 1983/84 growing seasons, fourteen sowing densities of the Araucana-INlA cultivar, ranging from 44 to 440 seeds/m², were evaluated in the IX Region of Chile. A significant increase on grain yield with increasing sowing density was observed in the 1982/83 season. The response was fitted to the function Y = 18.83 + 0.048X - 0.0001 X² (R² = 0.84 **). During 1983/84, however, no significant effect of plant density on grain yield was found. The number of pods/plant was the yield component more affected by plant densities. Its response was consistent over the years and it was similar in tendency to yield/plant. The mayor changes in the expression of this component was observed between 44 and 170-200 plants/m² ; over this range, the response was aImost constant and therefore, less affected by plant competition. The 100 seed-weight was affected only during the 1983/84 season, in which a linear reduction in its expression was observed. The number of seeds/pod was unaffected by plant densities in both years.