Abstract
Chickpea is the main legume rotation crop within farming systems in northern New South Wales (NSW), Australia, and is grown mainly under rainfed conditions. Recent expansion of chickpea growing areas in southern and central western NSW expose them to abiotic stresses; however, knowledge about how these stresses affect overall crop development is limited. This study aimed to examine the influence of sowing time on the timing and duration of key chickpea phenological growth phases in southern and central western environments of NSW. Experiments were conducted over two years in southern NSW (Leeton, Wagga Wagga and Yanco (one year)) and central western NSW (Trangie) to identify phenology responses. Climatic, phenology and experimental site data was recorded, and the duration of growth phases and growing degree days calculated. Early sowing (mid-April) generally delayed flowering, extending the crop’s vegetative period, and the progressive delay in sowing resulted in shorter vegetative and podding growth phases. All genotypes showed photoperiod sensitivity, and the mean daily temperature at sowing influenced time to emergence and to some extent crop establishment. This study concludes that environmental factors such as temperature, moisture availability and day length are the main drivers of phenological development in chickpea.
Highlights
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a cool season legume grown mainly in arid and semi-arid regions, where its production is constrained by a range of environmental factors such as temperature, soil moisture availability and day length
Despite the potential to be confounded by other environmental factors, examining the impact of Despite the potential to be confounded by other environmental factors, examining the impact of sowing date on plant development remains a practical and inexpensive screening approach to test sowing date on plant development remains a practical and inexpensive screening approach to test for adaptability of species to new production environments [13,17,18,19]
Sowing date was shown to be a large source of variation to chickpea effective strategy to test chickpea phenology
Summary
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a cool season legume grown mainly in arid and semi-arid regions, where its production is constrained by a range of environmental factors such as temperature, soil moisture availability and day length. It is the second most important pulse crop after common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) with approximately 17.8 million ha grown across 56 countries [1]. Two types of chickpea are produced, kabulis which have a thin, white or cream coloured seed coat and white flowers, and desis which have a thick, tan to dark brown coloured seed coat, and purple coloured flowers. Chickpea broadly constitutes a valuable break crop important for weed control, and prevention of soil and stubble borne cereal diseases through disrupting inoculum build up. Precipitation, Plants 2020, 9, 1257; doi:10.3390/plants9101257 www.mdpi.com/journal/plants
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