Objectives
The objective of this project was to demonstrate the effects of low, medium and high seeding rates at early and late seeding dates on flax establishment and seed yield for traditional and northern adapted varieties.
Project Description
The Indian Head Agricultural Research Foundation (IHARF) and Northeast Agriculture Research Foundation (NARF) conducted field demonstrations in 2013 and 2014. Overall, neither seeding date nor seeding rate had a substantial impact on flax productivity or yield in any case. The effect of seeding date on its own was not significant in any of the three cases; however, early seeding did result in earlier harvest and less risk of fall frost. Increasing seeding rates did result in slightly earlier maturity and higher yields at Indian Head; however, the magnitude of the increases were small and the potential benefits to rates beyond the typical 45-55 kg/ha were unlikely to justify the added se3ed cost. Yields of the traditional and northern adapted varieties were generally similar at Indian Head but the northern adapted variety yielded significantly higher at Melfort. While interactions between factors were occasionally detected for individual variables and sites, none were particularly consistent across sites.
