Influence of different barley varieties on competition and yield performance in barley-oats mixtures at two levels of nitrogen fertilization

Abstract

Competition between barley and oats, and yield performance of mixtures were evaluated in a two component replacement series field experiment at two levels of nitrogen applications (80 kgN/ha and 120 kgN/ha). Three barley cultivars (Aapo, Agneta ja Ida) and one oats cultivar (Veli) were used. The competitive relationship was independent of the pure stand yield of the cultivar. Ida and Agneta were more competitive than oats irrespective of nitrogen dose. Ida was the most dominant variety which was very likely due to the early development of the seedlings. Oats was slightly more competitive than the shortest cultivar Aapo at high nitrogen, although barley seedlings emerged before oats. Thus the competitive ability of a cultivar was not determined by one character of the plant only. The competition in mixtures had a greater effect on number of generative shoots and number of grains per head than on grain weight. The results revealed that the yield per plant in mixtures may be even the same as in monoculture, but the relative significance of different yield components may vary. The grain and protein yield of mixtures did not differ significantly from the yield of the highest yielding component grown alone. However, the ratio of actual and expected yield and the relative yield total were in most cases higher than one, indicating that some yield advantage may have been achieved. The genotypic composition of the stand had the greatest influence on the grain protein content of oats.