Productivity of spring barley at different seeding rates and doses of fertilizers

In the forest-steppe of the Euro-North-East of the Russian Federation (The Republic of Mordovia), the research has been carried out to optimize methods for cultivating spring barley of the Zazersky 85 cultivar, which allow to increase yield and improve grain quality. The experiment was carried out in 2020–2022 on leached medium-humic heavy loamy chernozem. There were studied seeding rates (4.5; 5.0; 5.5 million germinating seeds/ha) and doses of fertilizers (Ν 0 Р 0 К 0 ; Ν 32 Р 32 К 32 – before sowing (background); background + Ν 30-60-90 – in top dressing). It has been established that increasing the seeding rate from 4.5–5.0 to 5.5 million significantly reduced the barley grain yield by 0.61–0.70 t/ha, respectively, on average over the years of the research. The crop yield increased significantly under the influence of mineral fertilizers – by 1.62–3.42 t/ha compared to the control (2.68 t/ha). In general, the highest grain yield (6.29–6.47 t/ha) was obtained when sowing barley at rates of 4.5 and 5.0 million germinated seeds/ha by the application of Ν 32 P 32 K 32 before sowing and Ν 60-90 as a top dressing in the tillering phase. Under the influence of fertilizers, the quality parameters of grain changed: the grain unit increased by 15–33 g/l, the weight of 1000 grains – by 0.63–1.53 g, the protein content – up to 13.2 %; the film content decreased by 0.3–0.7 abs.%. The highest grain uniformity (93.0–94.8 %) was observed at the seeding rate of 4.5 and 5.0 million germinated seeds/ha in the variants with nitrogen fertilizers (Ν 60-90 ) against the background of Ν 32 P 32 K 32 . The highest profitability of grain production of the Zazersky 85 barley cultivar (103,18 %) was obtained at the seeding rate of 4.5 million germinated seeds per 1 ha with the application of Ν 32 P 32 K 32 before sowing and N 60 as a top dressing in the tillering phase.