Alfalfa · 2022 · Replicated field trial
AgriTec Alfalfa Spray-Seeding Trial
The best program returned 6.18 lb per plot against 2.85 lb where nothing was applied, a 117% increase on a first-year stand.
Agricenter International, Memphis TN
Top program
6.18
lb/plot · Program 3 · Split potassium
Untreated check
2.85
lb/plot
Significance
P = 0.0016
Treatment F-test
Result by treatment
Alfalfa · 2022
How the trial was run
- Site
- Agricenter International, Memphis TN · Shelby County
- Layout
- Randomized complete block · treated plot 10 × 30 ft · harvested area 5 × 30 ft · 7.5 in rows
- Treatments × reps
- 5 × 4 = 20 plots
- Variety
- Alfalfa, variety not stated · seeded 50 lb/ac at 0.75 in
- Planted
- May 26, 2022 · emerged June 3
- Harvested
- August 22, 2022 · single cut · 88 days after the first application
- Soil
- Falaya / Waverly silt loam · pH 6.5 · CEC 7.8 · 1.8% OM · fertility rated excellent at trial start
Statistics
- Treatment P(F)
- 0.0016
- LSD (P = .05)
- 1.268 lb
- CV
- 17.31%
- Grand mean
- 4.755 lb/plot
The breakdown
What happened, measurement by measurement.
Every chart below is transcribed from the report you can open above. Green means the AgriTec program won the measure outright; grey means it came in statistically even, which on a quality measure is the result you want — the yield came without a give-back.
Plant height · June 27
Every fertility program stood taller than the untreated check.
Harvested weight converted to lb/ac
The treated plots roughly doubled the untreated check on this cut.
Everything else that was measured
Including the measurements that did not move. A trial that only reports what improved isn't a trial.
Plant height, June 27
5.5 a / 5.0 ab / 4.3 bc / 3.8 c / 3.5 c in
Programs 4 / 3 / 2 / 5 / check · P = 0.0062 · LSD 1.04
Harvested weight converted to lb/ac
828 check · 1,345 to 1,795 treated
Direct conversion of the 150 ft² harvested area from a single cut, not a measured whole-field yield
Stand quality, June 6
3.0 to 3.8 on a 1 to 5 index
P = 0.2790 · not significant · no letters shown
Stand quality, July 27
3.0 to 3.5 on a 1 to 5 index
P = 0.0625 · assumptions failed · draw no conclusion
Program 3 gain over check
+967 lb/ac, about 0.48 ton
Single cut, area conversion
What the report says
- Four spray-applied seeding-year programs were tested against an untreated check, all applied in water at 15 gal/ac. Application A at planting on May 26, application B at V6 on June 22.
- Harvested weight was significant at P = 0.0016: Program 3 at 6.18 lb/plot down to the untreated check at 2.85.
- Plant height on June 27 was also significant at P = 0.0062, ranging from 5.5 in on Program 4 to 3.5 in on the check.
- Programs 2, 3 and 4 all carried the same 11 gal/ac total, so the comparison between them is about timing and analysis rather than rate.
- Neither stand-quality rating reached significance, so neither supports a treatment claim.
Trial notes & scope
- One site, one season, one soil type. Not repeated across years or geographies.
- The treated programs did not separate from each other. Only the treated-versus-untreated contrast is statistically supported.
- Weight was recorded as lb/plot at a single cut. It is not a multi-cut season yield, and the per-acre figures are an area conversion.
- Program 5 is confounded: it carried no calcium and no Nitro-Maxx+, but also 7 gal/ac instead of 11, so chemistry cannot be separated from total volume.
- The July 27 stand-quality rating is unusable. Levene's and Shapiro-Wilk both failed because the scores were near-constant.
- Baseline fertility was rated excellent and pH was already 6.5, so the check was not a deficient soil being rescued.
- Not conducted under GLP or GEP.
The full report
Read every page.
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