Impact of bed planting winter wheat on grain yield and quality

Abstract

The bedded planting systems has been used for centuries, in this time these systems have been used for water management, and field access. This study was designed to evaluate the impact of permanent bed, nitrogen rate, and timing of fertilizer application on winter wheat grain yield and grain nitrogen concentration. Experiments were conducted at the location of Hennessy and Perkins Oklahoma in the 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022 growing seasons. Experiments consisted of a factorial combination of two planting systems (permanent beds and conventional flat), four rates of nitrogen (0, 56, 112, 160 Kg ha⁻¹) and two application timings (pre-plant and in-season). The experimental design was a randomized block design, where bedded treatments and flat treatments were blocked off from each other with five replications. Grain yield and grain nitrogen concentration was found to be not statistically different between the two planting methods. Further testing between the permanent bed planting system and conventional flat planting system will need to incorporate treatments with the same row configuration.