The effect of seed rate and nitrogen on lodging and yield of spring barley (field experiments 1954 and 1955)

The extent to which spring barley crops lodged at Rothamsted increased with seed rate and with nitrogen, and was much more severe in the wet summer of 1954 than the dry one of 1955. Although in 1954 all plots were extensively lodged by harvest there were great differences in date of lodging; 50% of the area was lodged later in plots sown with 1 than with 3 bushels/acre, the delay being 8 days with 1½ cwt. sulphate of ammonia, 14days with 3 cwt. and 21 days with 4½ cwt. The weight of unit length of the basal part of the straw was reduced by higher seed rate and to a smaller extent by nitrogen.Yield of total grain was only slightly affected by treatments; yield of dressed grain was decreased by higher seed rate in 1 year and by nitrogen in both years.