Abstract
Seed size plays a large role in determining productivity of large seeded legumes. In many large seeded legumes such as pea and bean, actual yield, defined here as grain yield at harvest minus the weight of seed planted, is often a better measure of actual productivity than grain yield at harvest, because the weight of planted seed varies with seed size. In many grain legumes, the weight of planted seed can be equal to 10% of the total grain yield, and minimizing the weight of planted seed could significantly impact actual yield. This study produced an algorithm to examine the relationship between seed size, yield, and actual yield in silico. The output of this algorithm predicted the ideotype for seed size in peas to be much lower (12.5 g./100 seeds) than the seed size of nearly all commercial varieties, indicating that efficiency in pea cropping systems could be increased by reducing seed size. Modifications to the algorithm would allow the prediction of the ideal seed size in other legumes. The algorithm predicts that there is likely very little correlation between seed size and grain yield, although larger seeded legumes will likely have a higher harvest index. Plant breeders can use the ideotype predicted by this function to create varieties of peas and other large seeded legumes that have higher actual yield. The ideotype for seed size was defined in pea.
Highlights
In dryland production regions, pea yield is mainly limited by summer heat and availability of soil water
Pea has poor yield stability in dryland cropping systems [1], future yield potential can be estimated based on prior yields, allowing the breeding of advanced cultivars that can thrive in a specific region
It should be noted that increasing pod length increases the number of seeds per pod, reducing the number of pods needed per plant to reach a given yield potential
Summary
Pea yield is mainly limited by summer heat and availability of soil water. In large seeded legumes in low yielding environments, yield per se is not a perfect measurement of economic productivity. Given two varieties of peas with the same yield potential (1735 kg/ha) but different seed sizes, where variety A has a 100 seed weight of 15 g and variety B has a 100 seed weight of 30 g, variety A would have 124 kg/ha higher actual yield than variety B at current seeding rates of 80 seeds/m2. Given seeding rates for pea of 170 kg/ha and an average crop yield of 1735 kg/ha), the ratio between harvested grain and seeds planted (harvest ratio) is approximately 10:1. Beans, and other large seeded legumes have a similar harvest ratio, especially in many dryland cropping systems. This ratio is low compared to most other crops. For example, have a harvest ratio of ∼500:1, and wheat has a harvest ratio of ∼40:1 (assuming a seeding rate of 78.5 kg/ha and 50-bushel grain yield)
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