Comparison of performance planting methods on ridge and conventional soybean cultivated under dry and wet seedbed condition in north-west Iran

In order to evaluate different planters for mechanized soybean cultivated in two ways under dry and wet seedbed condition planting. This study was conducted using a randomized complete block design with six treatments and four replications. The experiment took place in two years from 2011 to 2012 at the Agricultural Research Center in Ardabil province (Moghan). The planter types were consisted of cereal deep seed drills (John Deere) under wet seedbed condition with 25 and 50 cm in row spacing as the first and second treatments, T1 and T2, respectively(conventional methods) , grain drills from Barzagar Hamadan with 25 and 50 cm in row spacing as third and fourth treatments, T3 and T4, respectively, and Gaspardo pneumatic row planters with50 cm in row spacing as the fifth treatment, T5 and Node two-row ridge planter with 75 cm in row spacing as the sixth treatment, T6. The evaluation results of machine types showed that there was significant difference between the machine type and other performance parameters. Results indicated that use of T6 and T4 led to highest and lowest yields with 2864 and 2252 kg ha-1, respectively. Planter type and cropping pattern also had significant effects on germination at 1% probability level. Pneumatic ridge planter had maximum percentage of seed germination (87.32%). Coefficients of seed distribution were found to be the highest for pneumatic ridge planter in adjusted distances (83.04%) and in averaged distances (87.32%). Therefore, considering many factors, the pneumatic ridge planters tested in this study was found to be the best suited planter and therefore is recommended for soybean planting in the region.