Effect of planting date and plant density on morphological traits, yield and water use efficiency of Plantago ovate

Abstract

In order to study the effect of planting date and plant density on morphological traits, yield and water use efficiency (WUE) of Plantago ovata, an experiment was conducted as a split-plot based on a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications at experimental field of Islamic Azad University, Birjand Branch, Birjand, Iran in 2008. The main plot was planting dates (April 19, May 9 and May 30) and the sub-plot was plant densities (16.6, 22.2 and 33.3 plants/m2). Means comparison indicated that retarding the planting from April 19 to May 30 decreased significantly plant height, spike length, leaf number/plant, husk, leaf and grain yield, and WUE for grain production by 24.5, 29.9, 18.2, 65.4, 60.2, 60.2 and 46.9%, respectively. As the results showed, with the increase in plant density from 16.6 to 33.3 plants/m2, plant height, grain yield and water use efficiency were increased significantly by 7.8, 82.8 and 82.1%, respectively, but leaf number per plant, spike length and tiller number per plant were decreased by 24.8, 5.9 and 28.9%, respectively. The highest husk and leaf yield, and WUE for biomass production were obtained at the density of 33.3 plants/m2 which was higher than those at the density of 16.6 plants/m2 by 2.11, 2.10 and 2.06 times, respectively. In total, according to the results, the planting date of April 19 with the density of 33.3 plants/m2 is recommended to realize maximum yield and water use efficiency inPlantago ovata cultivation in Birjand region, Iran. Key words: Plantago ovata, planting date, plant density, yield, water use efficiency.