Effects of Growth Period and Cumulative Temperature on Flowering, Ripening and Yield of Soybean by Sowing Times

The purpose of this research was to analyze the effect of different sowing times on the flowering and maturing of major soybean cultivars by varying day length and temperature in the central plain region. The average of growth period and cumulative temperature in five test cultivars by sowing times were 121 days and 2,972°C on June 1, respectively and gradually decreased to 85 days, 2,042°C, respectively on July 20. Analysis of the flowering response according to the sowing times showed that flowering was greatly influenced by the decrease of photoperiod until the sowing on July 10, and the minimum number of days for flowering were 27 days, 36 days, respectively in early and mid-rate maturing type in the central plain region. Daepung 2 is classified to the same ecotype with Daewonkong, the total number of growing days was not different between two cultivars, but ripening period (R2-R6) was longer by 5 days and yield was higher by 11% in Daepung 2. The maturity rate was also high and safe enough to maintain more than 90% through the entire sowing times. This ecological characteristic can be usefully applied as a section index for breeding environmental stress resistant and high yielding soybean varieties. The yield of 4 domestic cultivars (except TI196944) sowing on July 20 were 85~92% levels compared to sowing on June 20.