New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science abstracts
Effect of light and soil moisture on yield, yield components, and abortion
of reproductive structures of chickpea (Cicer arietinum), in
Canterbury, New Zealand
T. I. VERGHIS
B. A. MCKENZIE
G. D. HILL
Agronomy and Horticulture Group
Soil, Plant and Ecological Sciences Division
Lincoln University
Canterbury, New Zealand
email: mckenzie@lincoln.ac.nz
Abstract An experiment was conducted in 1994-95 to test the
effects of soil moisture (two levels, nil and fully irrigated) and shade (two
levels, full light and 40% shaded) on the abortion of reproductive structures,
yield, and yield components in chickpea (
Cicer arietinum L.). Shade and
soil moisture interacted significantly, and the highest dry matter (DM)
production of 838 g/m
2 was produced by unshaded irrigated
plants. This was about twice the DM produced by shaded unirrigated plants.
Total DM production was highly correlated with radiation interception, where c.
2.1 g DM were produced per MJ of intercepted photosynthetically active
radiation (PAR). Functional growth analysis showed that the crop growth rates
were 14 and 27 g/m
2 per day for shaded and unshaded plants
respectively. The two factors again interacted on seed yield. Highest yields
were produced from plants that were unshaded and irrigated
(389 g/m
2), whereas shaded irrigated plants produced only
139 g/m
2. Reduced seed yield was accompanied by a large drop in
harvest index (HI) in shaded irrigated plants. This drop in HI was because of a
limited assimilate supply in shaded plants and increased reproductive abortion
in shaded and irrigated plants.
Keywords chickpea; shade; irrigation; dry matter;
photosynthetically active radiation; abortion
H98040
Received 7 September 1998; accepted 6 January 1999
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (702K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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