The Productivity of Sareptsky Mustard Depends on the Sowing Rate and the Level of Biologization of the Crop Growing Technology

Abstract

The limiting factors for the popularization of Sarepta mustard in Ukraine are the lack of developed and ecologically adapted zonal technologies for its cultivation, certain dogmatism and stereotypes of the majority of agricultural producers regarding the economic feasibility of introducing Sarepta mustard in crop rotations, as well as bias regarding the effectiveness of biologic elements in the production technologies of plant raw materials. A field experiment was conducted to improve the technology of growing Sarepta mustard. The experiment scheme included the following factors and their variants: Factor A (culture cultivation technology) was represented by variants of the traditional zonal mustard cultivation technology; biologized technology (rejection of mineral fertilizers and their replacement with organic preparations) and organic (replacement of mineral fertilizers and synthetic pesticides with organic preparations). Factor B represented different rates of crop sowing (from 2.0 to 3.0 million pieces of similar seeds per 1 ha with an interval of 0.5 million). The Prima mustard variety was sown in the experiment. Plots in the experiment were placed using the method of split plots with partial randomization. An increase in the crop sowing rate from 2.0 to 3.0 million units/ha leads to a deterioration in the value of most biometric indicators (plant height, leafiness) and all indicators of the crop structure. However, taking into account the discrete nature of the real number of plants preserved in the agrocenosis at the time of the study, the values of such indicators as the area of the assimilation apparatus and the leaf index, as well as the yield of conditioned seeds of the culture, had a curvilinear relationship: with an increase in the sowing rate from 2.0 to 2.5 million pcs./ha grew, and subsequently decreased. The norm of 2.5 million seeds per hectare is recognized as the most optimal seeding rate for all variants of cultivation technology. Also, the study noted a significant advantage of the biological and organic technology of Sarepta mustard cultivation over the traditional intensive one in terms of both biometric and structural indicators, as well as the level of yield of conditioned seeds and its quality indicators, first of all, the content of raw fat in the seeds.