Wes & Meg Baker

Will lupins sown on wide row spacings yield as well as those sown on conventional spacings when sown on high medium and low productivity zones?

• Belara lupins were sown at 90kg with 70kg of legume special.

• They were sown in tram lines across high, medium and low productivity zones within the paddock.
• The following three row spacings were used (3 replications): 

• Lupin pod height (on primary stem) increased by 4-5 cm when the row spacing was increased from 9 inch to 18inch.
• Widening row spacing from 18 inch to 36 inch did not result in any additional pod height.
• This 4-5cm increase in pod height can make the difference between harvesting or missing the lupins.

Crop Biomass

• 9 and 18 inch row spacing grew similar biomass (3.5-3.9T/Ha).
• The 36 inch row spacing grew over 1T/Ha less biomass/Ha than the plants grown on 9 and 18 inch spacings (2.7T/Ha).
• 1T of lupin biomass would contain over 20 units of Nitrogen (40 kg Urea).

• Increasing the row spacing from 9 inch to 18 inch gave a 9% yield increase (390kg to 430kg/Ha). This 9% yield increase resulted in an additional $12 ha return.
• Widening row spacing from 18 inch to 36inch did not result in any additional grain yield.

• There were no significant interactions between row spacing and productivity zone.

• In dry seasons like 2002, increasing row spacings to 18 inch can increase lupin grain yield and pod height by 4-5cm.
• Increasing row spacing from 9 inch to 36 inch gave a slight yield increase but a reduction in nitrogen supply to the following wheat crop.
• The yield response to row spacing was consistent across all productivity zones.