Determination of Surface Seed Distribution in the Different Seeding Methods of Maize

Year 2017, Volume: 31 Issue: 1, 48 - 55, 28.04.2017

Djaha Venceslas Pacome Nzı Nurettin Kayahan Kazım Çarman

Abstract

In this study, the quality of surface (horizontal) seeds distribution and the growing area of seeds was determined by carrying out laboratory tests at 4 different seeding methods (conventional and twin row) and 3 forward speeds of precision pneumatic seeder (3; 5 and 7 km h-1). We compared the different seeding methods with the the average shape coefficient (rort) of growing area and determined the most optimal seeding method for maize. The coordinates (x, y) of each seed were measured and entered into the MATLAB software to generate the Voronoi polygons around each seed. These polygons were considered as the growing area of the seeds. According to the results, the analysis of variance performed on shape coefficients values showed that the difference between seeding methods were significant (P < 0.01). The most optimal seeding method for corn is the twin row method 25 cm seeds spacing intra row because it had a better growing area for the seeds with a average shape coefficient closer to 1 (rort=0.87). In addition we found the twin row seeding method 16 cm seeds spacing intra row very interesting because it had a high coefficient of form (rort=0.81) and also allowed to seed more seeds in a same area than all the other seeding methods of our study. This is a method whose can be a good alternative for maize seeding.

Keywords

Growing area, Forward speed, Maize, Twin row, Shape coefficient, Voronoi polygon