ELSEVIER Field Crops Research 49 (1997) 205-213 Field Crops Research Soybean growth and yield response to saturated soil culture in temperate environment 1 Larry C. Purcell a,*, Earl D. Vories b, Paul A. Counce b C. Andy King a 276 Altheimer Drice. Department of Agronomy. Uni~:ersity of Arkansas, Fayette~ille. AR 72704. USA t, Northeast Research and E~:tension Center. Unicersity of Arkansas, P.O. Box 48. Keiser, AR. 72351-0048, USA Received 23 April 1996; accepted 17 June 1996 a Abstract Saturated soil culture (SSC) is a production system developed in semiarid tropical Australia that reportedly increases soybean (Glycine max L. (Merr.)) yield above that obtained with conventional irrigation. With SSC, water is maintained in furrows between beds from early vegetative stages until maturity. The objective of this research was to evaluate SSC of soybean as an option in temperate regions for rotations in a rice-based production system. Soybean was sown in 1994 and 1995 at Keiser, Arkansas, on 15cm high beds, spaced 1 m apart in fields precision-graded to 0.15% slope. In 1994, the cultivars were Hutcheson (MG V) and Manokin (MG IV), and in 1995, the cuhivars were Asgrow 6297 (MG VI) (A6297) and Hartz 5545 (MG V) (H5545). In both years, the irrigation treatments were nonirrigated, furrow-irrigated at a 50mm soil water deficit, and SSC. In agreement with reports from Australia, the SSC treatment resulted in leaf yellowing after treatments were established, this yellowing was asscx:iated with a lag in biomass and N accumulation in comparison with the furrow-irrigated treatment in 1994. In 1995, N accumulation rate decreased in SSC during the acclimation period, but there was no effect on biomass accumulation rate. In contrast to reports from Australia, yield was not increased by the SSC treatment. In 1994, seed yield from the SSC treatment averaged across cultivars was 40% below that from the furrow-irrigated treatment. A similar yield decrease for the SSC treatment was observed in 1995 for H5545. For A6297, however, the SSC yields and furrow-irrigated yields did not differ. In 1994 for both cultivars and in 1995 for H5545, there was a strong negative response of seed yield to depth of water in the furrow of the SSC treatment. It was concluded that there is no yield advantage from a SSC management system compared to furrow irrigation at the Arkansas site. A positive yield response of SSC may be limited to arid environments where warm temperatures and high irradiance levels contribute to overcoming the detrimental effects of SSC following treatment establishment. Keywords: Seed growth; Irrigation: Nitrogen fixation, Glycine mtLr 1. Introduction ' Corresponding author: Tel. (5tll) 575-3983: Fax. (501) 575- 3975; E-mail. lpurcell@comp.uark.edu. This manuscript is published with the approval of the director of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, manuscript #961)39. Saturated soil culture (SSC) is a crop management system developed in tropical and subtropical Aus- tralia. Soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) is grown on beds with water maintained in furrows between beds 0378-4290/97/$17.00 Copyright © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII S0378-4291)(96)01004-0