Agronomic and physiological characteristics of soybean cultivars and their seeds according to plant population

Soybean (Glycine max) yield can be influenced by the choice of genetic material along with the use of an adequate plant population and selection of high-quality seeds. This study aimed to evaluate agronomic and physiological characteristics of soybean cultivars and their seeds, according to different plant populations. For this purpose, an experiment was conducted during the 2017/2018 harvest, under field conditions, in a randomized block design in a 3 x 4 factorial arrangement with four replicates. The treatments consisted of three soybean cultivars, TMG2181 IPRO, M 7739 IPRO, and BMX Power IPRO, at four population densities: 180,000; 220,000; 280,000 and 320,000 plants ha-1. The agronomic characteristics of the plants (plant height, stem diameter, number of branches, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, number of seeds per pod, weight of a 100 seeds and seed yield) and physiological quality (germination, first count of germination, seedling length, dry mass of the shoot and root and accelerated aging test) of these seeds were evaluated. The experiment showed that the agronomic characteristics of soybean cultivars and their seeds varied according to the genotypes, and that these phenotypic expressions can be altered according to the plant population. The indeterminate cultivar BMX Power IPRO obtained higher seed yield compared to the semi-determinate and determinate cultivars M 7739 IPRO and TMG2181 IPRO, mainly due to their field conformation and size. The indeterminate cultivar BMX Power IPRO showed higher average germination and seed hardiness and produced normal seedlings with good initial growth rate and dry weight. The yield and quality of soybean seeds were not affected by plant population.