Seed yield, protein and oil composition response of three soybean cultivars to foliar applied methanol

This study was designed to evaluate the effect of foliar applied aqueous methanol on seed yield ha-1, seed plant -1, 100 seed weight, seed protein and oil content of three soybean (Glycine max [L] Merrill) cultivars; Holladay, Manokin and Corsica. A Split-Plot Design was used in a two factorial arrangement where cultivars were used as main-plots and methanol levels of 0, 12.5 and 25% were used as sub-plots. Methanol treatments were applied at the R5 growth stage. Data were statistically analyzed using Two-Way Analysis of Variance procedures of the Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) and Statistix 4.0. Tukey's test was used to determine the Least Significance Difference (LSD) between treatment means. Pearson Correlation Coefficient (r) was used to determine correlationships between independent and dependent variables. All data analysis were tested at the .05 confidence interval. Statistical results revealed that methanol had no significant effect on seed yield ha-1, seed yield plant-1, 100 seed weight, seed protein and oil content. Methanol was not significantly correlated with cultivar or any of the dependent variables. Results suggest that methanol alone may not influence increased soybean productivity.