Chickpea root nodulation and yield response to fertilizer treatments

Non-Peer Reviewe

Selection for seed size and its impact on kabuli chickpea production

Non-Peer Reviewe

Canola and mustard response to short periods of high temperature and drought stresses at different growth stages

Non-Peer ReviewedBrassica crops grown on the semiarid Canadian prairie are often subject to heat and water stress during the period of flowering. A growth chamber study was conducted at Swift Current to understand the effects of short periods of high temperature stress and/or water stress at different developmental stages on the seed yield formation of different Brassica species. Two advanced breeding lines of canola quality Brassica juncea (PC98-44 and PC98-45) along with a canola cv. Quantum (B. napus L.) and a mustard cv. Cutlass (B. juncea L.) were grown under 20/18 °C day/night temperature. High (35/18 °C) and low (28/18 °C) temperature stresses were imposed for 10 days at bolting, flowering or pod formation stages in two separate growth cabinets. At the same time, low (90% available water) or high (50% available water) water stress was imposed on half of the plants in each of the temperature treatments. All yield components were affected by temperature stress, while water stress had no effect on most yield components. The severe reduction of pods main shoot-1 (75%), seeds pod-1 (25%), and seed weight (22%) by 35/18 °C, reduced main stem seed yield of by 87% in all Brassica cultivars. However, seed yield reduction per plant by the same stress was 51%, indicating recovery from the stress treatments by Brassica species. Delaying exposure to stress to pod development stage reduced the chance of the plant to recover from the stress. The low water stress was to encouraging better recovery at 28/18 °C stress. In the controlled growth chamber, B. juncea cultivars responded to heat stress by increasing pod production but ignoring filling pods, while B. napus maintained a better seed fill. Under field conditions where plant-to-plant competition is strong, B. juncea may produce more pods with higher seed yield than canola; this needs to be confirmed with further field trials

Chickpea seed yield in response to stubble type and fertility

Non-Peer Reviewe

Chickpea in semiarid cropping systems

Non-Peer ReviewedRelative to other pulse crops such as dry-pea (Pisum sativum L.) and lentil (Lens culinaris L.), chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is still new in western Canada. In 1999, there were 350,000 acres of chickpea seeded in Saskatchewan with more than 75% of the seeded area being located in the districts of Swift Current, Shaunavon, Moose Jaw, Rosetown, and Assiniboia (Noble 2000). Approximately 93% of the seeded chickpea area was harvested in Saskatchewan in 1999 (Statistics Canada, 1999). Due to abundant rainfall and generally cooler than normal growing conditions in 1999, some late-seeded chickpea fields did not reach full maturity. The best production success came in the southwest corner of Saskatchewan where the growing season (May to August) precipitation usually is less than 8 inches. The deeper rooting habit and the tolerance to water stress makes chickpea a winner under these adverse drought conditions. The objective of this study was to develop agronomic information for the inclusion of chickpea in cropping systems for the semiarid prairie region. The focus has been on aspects pertaining chickpea water use characteristics, stubble effect, re-cropping constraints, and other rotational considerations

Adaptation of chickpea to high latitude areas with short growing seasons: biomass and seed yield responses

Non-Peer ReviewedThis study was conducted to determine plant establishment, biomass and seed yield of chickpea under diverse environmental and crop management conditions. Four cultivars were grown on three types of seedbed using N fertilizer rates of 0, 28, 64, 84, and 112 kg N ha-1 with and without Rhizobium inoculant (GR), at six sites in Saskatchewan, Canada. On average, chickpea grown on fallow seedbed produced the highest straw biomass, 5.8 t ha-1, or 28% greater than chickpea grown on barley stubble and 13% greater than being grown on wheat stubble. Similarly, chickpea grown on fallow produced seed yield of 2.5 t ha-1, 22 and 14% greater than chickpea grown on barley and wheat stubble, respectively. The cultivar CDC-Frontier produced biomass of 7.6 t ha-1, 13% greater than CDC-Xena and 7% greater than Amit and CDC-Anna. Increasing N rates from 0 to 112 kg ha-1 without GR increased biomass production and seed yield in a linear relationship with the slopes being 0.556, 0.475, and 0.089 (t ha-1 per kg of N fertilizer) for biomass produced on barley-, wheat-, and fallow-seedbeds, respectively, and the slopes for seed yield being 0.231, 0.226, and 0.055, respectively. CDC-Frontier produced the greatest biomass and seed yield and was the most stable cultivar across the diverse growing environments, whereas CDC-Xena had the lowest productivity with highest variability. This study showed that there was large variability in primary production of chickpea biomass and seed yield in these high latitude areas, but the variability can be minimized by adopting best management practices such as optimizing seedbed conditions, selecting cultivars with high yield potentials, and use of effective N-fixing inoculants

Promoting chickpea maturity through fertility management

Non-Peer Reviewe

Fall-seeded canola in southwest Saskatchewan: interactions between seeding dates and seed coating

Non-Peer ReviewedSeeding canola in the fall allows the crop to use soil moisture in the spring more efficiently than when the crop is planted in the spring. In southwestern Saskatchewan, fall-seeded canola usually flowers one to three weeks earlier than spring-seeded canola, enabling the crop to avoid midsummer heat stress that normally occurs during the flowering period of spring seeded canola. However, fall-seeded canola normally germinates early in the spring when the soil is cold, which may result in poor emergence and thin crop stands that often limit seed yield. The success of fall-seeded canola depends on seeding the crop at an optimum date in the fall or using seeds coated with a substance that inhibits germination until it is degraded early in the following spring. The objectives of this study were to i) determine the optimum date for fall seeding of canola in the dry Brown soil zone of the Canadian prairies, ii) investigate the influence of seeding dates and seed coating on plant establishment, maturity, and seed yields of fall-seeded canola, and iii) examine the overall response of fall-seeded canola to the growing conditions of southwestern Saskatchewan

Optimum plant population density for chickpea in a semiarid environment

Non-Peer ReviewedChickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), an annual grain legume, is being rapidly included in cereal-based cropping systems throughout the semiarid Canadian prairies, but information on optimum plant population density (PPD) has not been developed for this region. This study was conducted from 1998 to 2000 in southwestern Saskatchewan to determine the impact of PPD on field emergence, seed yield and quality, and harvestability of kabuli and desi chickpea compared with dry pea (Pisum sativum L.). Seed yields of all legumes increased with increasing PPD when the crops were grown on conventional summerfallow. The PPD that produced the highest seed yields ranged from 40 to 45 plants m-2 for kabuli chickpea, 45 to 50 plants m-2 for desi chickpea, and 75 to 80 plants m-2 for dry pea. When the legumes were grown on wheat stubble, the PPD that gain optimum seed yield ranged from 35 to 40 plants m-2 for kabuli, 40 to 45 plants m-2 for desi chickpea, and 65 to 70 plants m-2 for dry pea. The proportion of large-sized (>9-mm diameter) seed in the harvested seed was >70% when the kabuli chickpea was grown on summerfallow regardless of PPD, whereas the large-seed proportion decreased with increasing PPD when the crop was grown on wheat stubble. Increases in PPD advanced plant maturity by 1.5 to 3.0 days, and also increased the height of lowest pods from the soil surface by 1.4 to 2.0 cm (or 5 to 10%), with desi type receiving the greatest benefits from increased PPD

Chickpea pod infertility: a potential of improving seed yield

Non-Peer ReviewedChickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is being rapidly adapted to the semiarid Canadian prairies, but little is known about morphological responses of this annual legume to growing conditions. This study, conducted in southwestern Saskatchewan, examined the morphological plasticity of three market classes of chickpea by growing the crop at four plant population densities. Chickpea grown at the high (50 plants m-2) population density produced approximately half as many fertile pods per plant as those grown at the low (20 plants m-2) density, but total number of pods per unit area increased with increasing plant population density. Large-seeded kabuli chickpea produced fewer pods per unit area, or 110 seeds for every 100 pods. The yield potential of desi and small-seeded kabuli chickpea can be increased by increasing plant population density, whereas the seed yield of large-seeded kabuli can be improved by reducing the proportion of infertile pods