The effect of soil volume, plant density and sowing depth on soybean seedlings characters

Plant breeding, associated with other areas, as well as the registration and protection of cultivars, have brought relevant contributions to turn soybean into one of the most important crops for the Brazilian agribusiness. Potential additional soybean descriptors for cultivar protection purposes such as the length of the hypocotyl and epicotyl have been reported in the literature. Thus, the objective of this work was to study the effect of soil volume, plant density per pot and crop and cultivar depth on the length of the hypocotyl and epicotyl and the height of soybean seedlings. The study conducted 4 experiments, in which the length of the hypocotyl and epicotyl and the height of soybean seedlings were evaluated at the V2 and V3 stages. Experimental units were submitted to pots with three volumes of soil (1, 2 or 3 dm3), three quantities of plants per pot (1, 2 or 3), three sowing depths (1, 2 or 3 cm) and four cultivars [TMG 4185, BRSMG 68 (Vencedora), BRS 7980, BRS 8381]. Results showed that soil volume, plant density and sowing depth had no effect on hypocotyl length evaluated at the V2 stage and that sowing depth had no effect on epicotyl length. However, soil volume, plant density, sowing depth and cultivar variations had an influence on plant height, and the soybean cultivars showed distinguishability for hypocotyl and epicotyl length at the V2 and V3 stages, being considered potential soybean descriptors.