Results of two years equal distance narrow row corn planting investigations

摘要

To reach the best crop growth the spacing of every single plant in the field has to be optimised. A high number of developments in seeding and planting technology try to reach this aim. Within row crop cultivation developments towards this goal were limited by the need for mechanical weeding and the restrictions of the harvesting technology. With the availability of herbicides and row independent cutter heads for forage choppers these limitations are removed for growing maize for whole crop silage. Therefore in 1998, 1999 and 2000 investigations on equal distance narrow row planting of maize for whole crop silage (in comparison to conventional planting) were carried out by the Institut fuer Landtechnik der Technischen Universitaet Muenchen in Weihenstaphan. They show that equal distance narrow row com planting can be easily realised using modified existing equipment. The equal plant distribution leads to a more efficient water use and sun light "harvest" which result in higher yields (dry matter, protein and energy) of up to 7 %.