<p>In this article, we proposed a rationale for choosing the seeding aggregates to improve the quality of ordinary spring wheat sowing in the moderate arid steppe of the Altai Territory. We determined the actual values and variability of spring wheat sowing quality indicators when different sowing units were used. A comparative evaluation of sowing aggregates was made on the basis of a generalized parameter that characterizes the quality of sowing taking into account their equalization. The study compared the following technologies and seeding machines: direct seeding with the use of the EPPK-2.5 complex; zero technology (No-Till) with sowing complex Condor; traditional technology of cultivation of crops with autumn processing with PG-3-5 gun, presowing processing of APK-7.2 and sowing of SZP-3.6A. The compared variants were randomly located, the sowing was carried out in the third decade of May, the rate of sowing was 5 million virgin grains per hectare, spring soft wheat "Altai 70". Determination of quality parameters of sowing (depth of seeding, the number of plants, plant height and their statistics) were conducted in the 2nd decade of June. During 2013-2016, SZP-3.6A crops had the advantage from the number of shoot and it was 346.1 pcs / m2, which is by 1.84 and 2.34 times was higher than Condor and EPPK-2.5 respectively. The height of plants also had an advantage of SZP-3,6A – 282.6 mm, which was higher by 25.4 mm and 71.2 mm than in Condor and EPPK-2.5 respectively. Each indicator of the quality of sowing was characterized by fluctuated magnitude. High coefficient of variation indicated low quality of sowing. We calculated the equalization coefficient for each parameter to assess the uniformity of crops performed by each machine. The SZP-3,6A seeder exceeded the compared seeding complexes for all three parameters, which indicated higher seed uniformity than Condor and EPPK-2.5. Comparative evaluation of the seeding machines Condor and EPPK-2.5 was ambiguous. At the seeding unit EPPK-2.5, the leveling factor was 12.3% higher than in Condor, the seeding rate was 17.8% lower in comparison with Condor, and the plant height was insignificantly (by 2.1%) lower than Condor.</p><p>We suggested a generalized leveling factor to evaluate the sowing aggregates in terms of the quality of sowing, i.e. radius vector drawn up to point A, characterized by the coordinates A (depth of embankment, number of sprouts, and plant height). A better seeding was obtained with the SZP-3.6 A seeding unit (84.2%). The lowest quality parameters for sowing were obtained from the seeding complex EPPK-2.5 (75.9%). Crops with this complex were characterized by the greatest uneven quality of sowing, which requires a correct justification for both the sowing rate, the method of sowing and the width of the rows of cultivated crops according to the technology applied to specific conditions.</p>
The influence of production technology on yield and selected quality parameters of spring wheat cultivars
