TFPlan: Software for Restricted Randomization in Field Plot Design

Strict computer randomizations of entry/treatment numbers in field plot designs may result in the placement of entries on one side of the field or back‐to‐back. Both situations present a problem if the blocks have not been properly assigned, or errors occur in planting, maintaining, or harvesting the plots. A software program (TFPlan) was developed to avoid the randomizations that resulted in these two types of problems. TFPlan was initially designed for cultivar performance trials in North Carolina and may be useful to breeders, cultivar testing programs, and researchers who have large entry/treatment numbers. It has the capability of adding tests, changing plots, inserting border and irrigation rows, marking fill‐in plots, adding miscellaneous footnotes as well as labeling the tests. TFPlan will make 500 or more attempts to find a randomization that does not have entries occurring only on one side of the field or back‐to‐back.