Development of Agronomic Practices for Chickpea Production in Alberta
Chickpea production information has not been developed for Alberta. Information on cultivar performance, inoculation, seeding rates, seeding dates, and fertilizer recommendations will be developed.
IPNI-2000-CAN-AB20
18 May 2001
2000
After seeding, all plots progressed well with the exception of Milk River where on the fallow plot, water accumulation in a low spot caused severe soil crusting and resulted in very poor emergence. As a result, approximately 50% of reps 1 and 4 were not harvested. Precipitation levels were approximately 60% below average and as a result yields were slightly lower than what might have been expected.
Experiment 1 - Variety X Inoculant X Nitrogen Experiment
Variety - At each research location, the Desi (Myles) chickpeas significantly out yielded the Kabuli (Stanford) chickpeas by 11% - 143%. On the fallow sites, the yield difference between the Desi and Kabuli varieties were not as great as on the stubble sites. This may indicate that the Desi chickpeas may be more drought tolerant than the Kabuli chickpeas. Generally, the Kabuli chickpeas had higher bushel weights (significant at Bow Island - fallow, Lethbridge - stubble, Milk River - stubble and Carmangay - fallow), higher protein content (significant at Bow Island - fallow, Lethbridge - stubble , Milk River - stubble, and Carmangay - stubble), and Higher P content (significant at all locations) than the Desi chickpeas. The higher protein and P content in the Kabuli chickpeas are likely due to the lower yields, thus increasing the protein and P concentration. High bushel weights are also likely a result of lower yields. The Desi chickpeas had significantly higher Ca content than the Kabuli chickpeas at all research locations.
Inoculant - In June, a number of research locations showed an obvious visual response to inoculant in both crop canopy and root nodulation. Although trends do show increased yields due to applied inoculant, the Carmangay fallow site was the only site that showed a significant yield response. The chickpeas did show an increase in protein levels (significant at Milk River - fallow, Lethbridge - stubble, and Bow Island - fallow) with the addition of applied inoculant. There was no significant bushel weight, P, or Ca content response to inoculant.
Nitrogen - There was no significant yield response to nitrogen fertilizer at any of the research locations. Results did show however, that increased rates of nitrogen fertilizer did have a significant response on bushel weight (at Bow Island - fallow, Carmangay - fallow, and Milk River - fallow), protein content (all research locations), Ca content, (all research locations) and P content (Bow Island - fallow, Carmangay -stubble and fallow, and Lethbridge - stubble). Bushel weight, protein levels, and Ca content all showed a positive correlation to increased rates of nitrogen fertilizer. P content declined with the addition of nitrogen fertilizer.
Interaction - The variety and inoculant interaction showed a significant bushel weight response (at Milk River - stubble), protein response (at Carmangay - fallow, and Milk River - stubble), Ca response (Milk River - stubble) and P response (Carmangay - stubble). The variety and nitrogen interaction showed a significant yield response (at Carmangay - stubble and Milk River - stubble), bushel weight response (at Bow Island - fallow and Carmangay stubble), protein response (Bow Island - fallow and Carmangay - stubble), and P content response (at Milk River - stubble). The inoculant and nitrogen interaction showed a significant yield response (at Carmangay - stubble) and Ca content response (at Milk River - fallow). The variety, inoculant and nitrogen interaction showed a Ca content response (at Milk River - stubble).
Experiment 2 - Phosphorus Experiment
There was no significant yield or Ca content response to applied phosphate fertilizer at any of the research sites. However, there was a trend of yield increase at the Bow Island fallow (significant at 93% interval) and Milk River stubble (significant at 90% interval) sites. There was a significant bushel weight response (Carmangay - fallow) and P content response (Lethbridge - stubble) to applied phosphate fertilizer. Soil P levels were medium to high at most sites, and together with very dry moisture conditions there was a reduced chance of P response.
Experiment 3 - Sulfate-Sulfur Experiment
There was no significant yield, bushel weight, protein, Ca, or P content response to applied sulfate at any of the research locations with the exception of the Carmangay stubble site where there was a significant yield response to applied sulfate. Sulfate levels at most research locations were very high and therefore, a response to sulfate was not anticipated. Sulfate levels at Bow Island were low, and although yield results were not significant the data does show a trend of increasing yield.
Experiment 4 - Seeding Date X Seeding Rate Experiment
Seeding Date - There was no significant Ca or P content response to seeding date at any of the locations. Results did show however, that there was a significant yield response (Bow Island - fallow and Lethbridge - stubble), bushel weight response (Lethbridge - stubble), and protein response (Bow Island - fallow) to seeding dates. At both sites it was very clear that the first seeding dated out yielded the second and third seeding dates.
Seeding Rate - Plant populations reveal the differences in seeding rates. There was no effect of seeding rates on bushel weight, Ca, or P content. At the Lethbridge stubble site, there was a significant yield and protein response to seeding rates. At the Bow Island fallow site the 40, 60, 80, and 100 seeds/m2 treatments all yielded very similar. This is likely due to the fact that moisture stress pre-determined yield.