Two-dimensional partitioning of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea</i> L.) response to plant density and thinning intensity after flowering .L~)

Abstract

The two-dimensional partitioning (TDP) technique of yield component analysis (YCA) was evaluated using a groundnut, (Arachis hypogaea L.) crop at four plant population densities or five thinning intensities (%) after flowering. The experiments were carried out during the 1989/90 cropping season at the University of Queensland's Redland Bay farm, Australia. Two cultivars (Improved Virginia Bunch and Red Spanish) were grown. In Experiment 1,  the plant densities were 10, 21, 28 or 42 m² while in Experiment 2, the five thinning intensities were 0%, 33%, 50%, 66 % or 75%, frorn an initial density of 42 plants m^-2. Thinning was carried out 32 days after planting. Total dry mass (TDM), kernel yield and some plant morphological characteristics were measured. The results show that  variations in TDM and kernel yield m^-2 were significantly influenced by intrinsic variances of yield components analyzed in this study. For example in both, experiments variation in TDM m^-2 resulted from variations observed in the planting density, which influenced growth performance of plant morphological components during the season. The components included, TDM/number of pegs+pods, ratio of peg+pod number/leaf area, and the number of branches/plant. Similarly, differences in kernel yield m^-2 were associated with the variation in the above components in addition to number of kernels/pod and kernel mass. Thus, TDP-YCA gave a better analysis of groundnut response to planting density and thinning intensity after flowering than when the analysis of variance (ANOVA) technigue was used alone.

Keywords: Arachis hypogaea L., kernel yield, density, thinning., TDP-YCA

Tanzania J. Agri. Sc. (1999) Vol. 2 No.l, 91-98