Row Spacing and Seeding Rate Influence on Spring Canola Performance in the Northern Great Plains.

Spring canola has become an important economic crop in North Dakota averaging 1,042,000 acres sown the last ten years.  The canola industry is continually looking for ways to expand acreage in areas where row crops such as soybean, corn, dry bean and sugarbeet are grown.  In these areas there is interest in the potential of using row crop equipment to seed canola in wider row spacings.  Current recommended seeding rates are for narrow row spacings of 6 to 7 inches.  Seed costs are a concern in canola production and the use of lower seeding rates in wider row spacing could enhance crop revenue.  The objective of this research was to investigate the optimum row spacing in conjunction with varying seeding rates to determine the greatest economic return per acre in canola production.  A replicated RCBD field study in a split plot arrangement with row spacing as main plots and seeding rates as subplots was conducted at Langdon and Prosper, ND.  Row spacing was 6, 12, and 24 inches and seeding rates were 3, 6, 9, and 12 pure live seed (PLS) ft^-2_.   Effect of row width and seeding rate on agronomic traits of flowering, maturity, plant height, kernel weight, oil percentage and lodging were very small or non-significant.  The optimum combination of row width and seeding rate for net return/acre was planting in a 6 or 12-inch row spacing at a seeding rate of 6 to 9 PLS ft^-1 and in a 6 inch row spacing at a seeding rate of 6 to 9 PLS ft^-1 and Langdon and Prosper, respectively.   This study will be conducted again in 2016.