Effect of plant density and cultivars on growth, yield and yield components of faba bean (<i>Vicia faba</I> L.)

Abstract

One field experiment was conducted at the Experimental Farm, Faculty of Agriculture at Zabol University during the 2006/2007 season to study the effect of plant density (D) and cultivars (V) on some growth characters of faba bean. The experimental design applied was randomized complete
block (RCBD) in factorial arrangement with three replications. Plant density at three levels (12.5, 16.7 and 20 plant m^-2) and cultivars at four levels (Aljazayeri, Barekat, Shami and var. 3514) were used as
experimental treatments. The obtained results showed that some characters were markedly affected by plant density, except plant height, height of the lowest pods of soil surface, 100 seeds weight, number
of pods per plant and number of seed per pod. Increasing plant density from 12.5 to 20 plant m^-2 significantly increased economical yield and biological yield. As such, the cultivars had a significant effect on economical and biological yields. Aljazaeri cultivar surpassed all other cultivars in terms of biological and economical yields, whereas the interaction effect of ‘D x V’ was significant for both biological and economical yields. Increasing plant spacing increased the number of pods per plant, but a decrease in the number of seed/pods consequently gave the highest seed yield. However, cultivars had no significant effect on yield and other investigated characters. Thus, the use of Algazayeri cultivar at the highest plant density produced the best seed and biological yield in this condition.

Keyword: Hundred (100) seeds weight, number of pods, growth characters, economical and biological yield