Comparison of Different Planting Methods to Determine the Precision of Phenotyping Wheat in Field Experiments

Abstract

Lack of uniformity of plant stand while conducting a field experiment can substantially contribute to errors in the prediction of association between plant phenotype and genotype. Among the several factors that can contribute to experimental errors, inconsistent seed depth and plant spacing often occur due to lack of precision when seeds are sown by hand or seed drills. Hence, we compare three planting methods, novel dibbling, seed drill, and hand sowing, to determine the most efficient method for precision phenotyping in field. We showed the advantage of the new methods over conventional methods of sowing, viz., seed drill and by hand. Compared with conventional methods, the new method improved the consistency in plant spacing substantially as indicated by reduction in standard deviation at least by three times. The desired seed depth (6.5 cm) and plant spacing (10 cm intra- and 20 cm inter-row spacing) could be maintained with greater precision in dibbling method than in seed drill or hand sowing method. The reduction in error and the least coefficient of variation (CV%) for the plant traits measured in the new method relative to other methods indicated possibility of enhancing precision in phenotyping responses of wheat plants under field condition.