Growth and grain yield of chickpea (Cicer arietinum) cultivars as affected by plant densities under the fall dry land farming

A field experiment was carried out during the 2013-2014 growing season in Lorestan Province (Iran) to evaluate the effect of three planting densities (30, 55, and 83 plant.m-2) on growth indices and grain yield of four chickpea cultivars (Azad, Hashem, Arman and ILC482) under the fall dry land farming condition. The experiment design was factorial based on a randomized complete block design (RCBD) in three replications. The growth of pea under different planting densities was evaluated by measuring the growth indices including dry matter accumulation (DMA), crop growth rate (CGR), leaf area index (LAI), and relative growth rate (RGR). Results showed that pod number per plant was affected by plant density and cultivar, where ILC482 had the highest pod per plant. Also, the highest pod per plant was observed in the density of 55 plant.m-2 which was 38% and 32% higher than those of 30 and 85 plant.m-2 planting densities, respectively. Branch number, plant height, 100-grains weight, grain yield, biological yield, and harvest index were affected significantly by the interaction of cultivar × planting density. ILC482 cultivar had the highest grain yield (2077 kg.ha-1) in the density of 83 plant.m-2 which was 25, 59 and 23% more than that of Hashem, Azad and Arman cultivars, respectively. ILC482 cultivar had the highest LAI and CGR during the growing season. Since the highest grain yield was achieved at the highest density, it is required to evaluate the higher densities effect on grain yield of chickpea under dry land farming.