Yield Response to Pea (Pisum sativum L.) Genotype, Population and Sowing Date

Z Munakamwe

doi:10.2174/1874331501206010047

Abstract

This research objective was to examine the effect of herbicide, genotype, population and sowing date on crop yield and weed growth in Pisum sativum. In 2007/08, cyanazine treated peas had a mean seed yield of 508 g m -2 , 19% more than in unsprayed plots. There was a significant sowing date by pea genotype interaction which showed that in the August sowing genotype had no effect on seed yield. However, in September Pro 7035 yielded 559 g m -2 , which was 40% more than Midichi. By the October sowing, it was 87% more. There was a distinct variation in weed spectrum, over time. It can be concluded that fully leafed peas and semi-leafless can be sown at similar plant populations and give similar yields under weed free conditions and that increased pea sowing rates increased total dry matter and seed yield in weedy environments. Fully leafed peas yielded more than semi-leafless peas when both were late sown. Increased pea sowing rate improved weed suppression.

Highlights

Sustainable crop production requires growers to consider all agronomic and environmental aspects and optimise them to obtain optimum yields without degrading the environment
The research objective of this work was to examine the effect of field pea genotype, population and sowing date and their interactions on crop yield, yield components and weed growth
Sub-plots were a factorial combination of three field pea genotypes; conventional (Pro 7035), semi-leafless branched (Aragorn) and semi-leafless unbranched (Midichi) and three pea populations; 0.5 x the recommended sowing rate (50 plants m-2), recommended sowing rate (100 plants m-2) and 4.0 x recommended sowing rate (400 plants m-2)

Summary

Introduction

Sustainable crop production requires growers to consider all agronomic and environmental aspects and optimise them to obtain optimum yields without degrading the environment. In organic production systems this can be difficult and growers try to control weeds by intercropping [1], crop rotation, mechanical and hand weeding, use of appropriate sowing date, competitive crop genotypes [2] and, often, high sowing rates. Sowing date is a major determinant of crop yield as it determines crop duration. The trend in crop production is for early sowing to optimise yield [3]. Yield is increased because crops have a longer growing season and photosynthesise for longer. Early growth allows earlier canopy closure and a gives a greater competitive edge to the crop over some weed species

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