INFLUENCE OF VARIED PLANT DENSITY ON GROWTH, YIELD AND ECONOMIC RETURN OF DRIP IRRIGATED FABA BEAN (Vicia faba L.)

Faba bean frequently alter the structure and size of their canopy as a consequence of environmental factors. This peculiarity has been taken into account to handle the little information regarding how growth and yield of faba bean respond to significant changes in plant density and how these changes affect yield potential and economic return. The seeds of two faba bean varieties (Giza 716 and Giza 843) were cultivated around the emitters of a drip irrigation system at five densities (4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 plants dripper-1). The results showed that the relative growth rate, net assimilation rate, total dry weight per plant and leaf area per plant gradually increased with increasing plant density up to 8 plants dripper-1 and significantly decreased with 10 and 12 plants dripper; however, increasing plant density increased the plant height and decreased the number of branches per plant. The highest leaf area duration and leaf area index were found at 8 plants dripper-1, while the lowest were found at 4 plants dripper-1. While yield components of individual plants tend to significantly decrease with increased plant density, seed yield per hectare significantly increased with increasing plant density up to 8 plants dripper-1 and slightly decreased with 10 and 12 plants dripper-1. Crop production functions with respect to the number of plants per dripper versus all the attributes measured exhibited strong quadratic relationships with the exception of the yield components of individual plants, which exhibited a strong linear relationship. Seed yield per hectare showed a strong relationship with crop growth and vegetative growth parameters but not with the yield components of individual plants. Finally, when the plant densities were converted to seeding rates, simulations indicated that 118.0 (6 plants dripper-1) and 118.8 kg ha-1 (8 plants dripper-1) for branched (Giza 716 ) and non-branched (Giza 843) varieties, respectively, were adequate to lower seed cost without reducing net profit

PDF

___

Achakzai, A.K.K. and S.A. Taran. 2011. Effect of seed rate on growth, yield components and yield of mash bean grown under irrigated conditions of arid uplands of Balochistan, Pakistan. Pak. J. Bot. 43(2): 961-969.
Albayrak, S., M. Türk, and O. Yüksel. 2011. Effect of row spacing and seeding rate on hungarian vetch yield and quality. Turkish J. Field Crops.16 (1): 54-58.
Almeida, F.A.C., L. López-Bellido, M. Fuentes and J.E. Castillo. 1995 Effect of plant density on growth and yield of faba bean (Vicia faba L.) in Mediterranean conditions. In: AEP (Ed.), Proceeding of Second European Conference on Grain Legumes, 9–13 July, Copenhagen, Denmark, p. 167.
Amato, G., R. Cibella, D. Giambalvo and L. Gristina. 1992. Observations of the reproductive development in faba bean (Vicia faba L. var. equina ) in relation to plant density. In: AEP (Ed.), Proceedings of the First European Conference on Grain Legumes. 1–3 June, Angers, France, pp. 245–246.
Bakry, B.A., T.A. Elewa, M.F. El karamany, M.S. Zeidan and M.M. Tawfik. 2011. Effect of row spacing on yield and its components of some faba bean varieties under newly reclaimed sandy soil condition. World J. Agric. Sci. 7 (1): 68-72.
Ball, A.R., W.R. McNew, D.E. Vories, C.T. Keisling and C.L. Purcell. 2001. Path analyses of population density effects on short-season soybean yield. Agron J. 93:187-195.
Bianchi, A.A. 1979. Results of three years of experimental trials on the cultural techniques of the horse bean for seeding (Vicia faba minor Beck). 2- Plant densities and distance between the rows. Riv Agron., 13: 201-206.
Caballero, R. 1987. The effect of plant population and row width on seed yields and yields components of field beans. Res. Dev. Agric., 4: 147-150.
Ciampitti, I.A. and T.J. Vyn. 2011. A comprehensive study of plant density consequences on nitrogen uptake dynamics of maize plants from vegetative to reproductive stages. Field Crop Res. 121, 2–18.
Coelho, J.C. and P.A. Pinto. 1989. Plant density effects on growth and development of winter faba bean (Vicia faba L. var. minor). Fabis News let. 25, 26–30.
Dantuma, G. and R. Thompson.1983. Whole-crop physiology and yield components. In: Hebblethwaite, P.D. (Ed.), The Faba Bean (Vicia faba L.).Butterworths Publisher, London, pp. 143–158 (Chapter 6).
El-Zahab, A.A.A., A.A. Al-Babawy and A.S.Nidawy.1981. Density studies on faba beans (Vicia faba L.). Part II: growth parameters. Zeitschriftfür Acker- und Pflanzenbau 150 (4), 303–312.
Graf, R.J. and G.G. Rowland.1987. Effect of plant density on yield and components of yield of faba bean. Can. J. Plant Sci. 67, 1–10.
Hunt, R. 1990. Basic Growth Analysis: Plant Growth Analysis for Beginners. Academic Press, UK.
Khalil, S.K., A. Wahab, A. Rehman, F. Muhammad, S.Wahab, A.Z. Khan, M.Zubair, M.K. Shah, H. Khalil and R.
Amin.2010. Density and planting date influence phonological development, assimilate partitioning and dry matter production of faba bean. Pak. J. Bot., 42(6): 3831- 3838.
López-Bellido, F.J., L. López-Bellido and R.J. LópezBellido.2005. Competition, growth and yield of faba bean (Vicia faba L.). Eur. J. Agron. 23, 359–378.
Loss, S.P., K.H.M. Siddique, L.D. Martin and A. Crombie. 1998 Responses of faba bean (Vicia faba L.) to sowing rate in South-western Australia. Part II: canopy development, radiation absorption and dry matter partitioning. Aust. J. Agric. Res. 49,999–1008.
Malik, M.F.A., M. Ashraf, A.S. Qureshi and A.Ghafoor. 2007. Assessment of genetic variability, correlation and path analyses for yield and its components in soybean. Pak. J. Bot., 39(2): 405-413
Mathews, P.W., E.L. Armstrong, C.J. Lisle, I.D. Menz, P.L. Shephard and B.C. Armstrong. 2008. The effect of faba bean plant population on yield, seed quality and plant architecture under irrigation in southern NSW. Proceeding of the 14th Australian Agronomy Conference. September, Adelaide South Australia. www.agronomy.org.au.
McGraw, J.B. and K.Garbutt.1990. The analysis of plant growth in ecological and evolutionary studies. Trends Ecol. Evol.5: 251–254.
Mellendorf, E.N. 2011. Soybean growth and yield response to interplant competition relief in various plant density environments. MSc Thesis, University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, USA.85 p.
Muchow, R.X., T.R. Sicclair, J.M. Benneth and L.C. Hammond. 1986. Response of leaf growth, leaf nitrogen and stomatal conductance to water deficits during vegetative growth of field grown soybean. Crop Sci. 26, 1190–1195.
Pilbeam, C.J., G. Duc and P.D. Hebblethwaite. 1990. Effects of plant population density on spring-sown field beans (Vicia faba L.) with different growth habits. J. Agric. Sci. 114, 19– 33.
Pilbeam, C.J., P.D. Hebblethwaite, H.E. Ricketts and T.E.Nyongesa.1991. Effects of plant population density on determinate and indeterminate forms of winter field beans (Vicia faba).Part 1: Yield and yield components. J. Agric. Sci. 116, 375–383.
Polignand, G.B. and P. Uggenti. 1989. Variation analysis of physiological traits among different entries of faba bean (Vicia faba L.). Fabis Newslett. 25, 22–25.
Poulain, D., S. Keller and J. Le Guen. 1986. Canopy development and efficiency of foliar light interception in winter faba bean. Fabis Newslett. 16, 13–19.
Rafiei, M. 2009. Influence of tillage and plant density on mungbean. Am.-Eurasian J. Sustain. Agric., 3(4): 877-880.
Ragab, A.A., A.T. Emanand S.M. Abd El-Rasoul. 2010. A comparison between traditional and recent bioinocula on growth and productivity of faba bean (Vicia faba L.) grown in calcareous soil. Intern. J. Academic Res., 2(4): 245-253.
Siddique, M., M.F.A. Malik and S.I. Awan. 2006. Genetic divergence, association and performance evaluation of different genotypes of mungbean (Vigna radiata ). Int. J. Agric. Biol., 8(6):793-795.