A better understanding of the agronomic importance of planting date and the influence of cold temperatures and photoperiod during germination and plant growth may lead to better management strategies for cultivation of the sweet white lupin (Lupinus albus). The effects of planting date (temperature and photoperiod) were determined on the number of days to flowering, yield and yield components of four early to medium and one late sweet white lupin genotype in a field trial at Potchefstroom, South Africa, planted during February 1996 to January 1997. Moisture stress was avoided through regular irrigation. Duration of the developmental phases planting date to emergence, emergence to floral initiation, initiation to first flower, duration of flower and days to physiological and harvest maturity was related to field measurements of temperature and photoperiod. Differences in the main determinants of yield, i.e. seeds per pod, pods per plant, single seed mass (SSM), plant and pod height and yield, were measured. Results showed that both temperature and photoperiod influence the growth and development of the Lupinus albus genotypes ‘Esta’, ‘Hantie’, ‘Tifwhite’, ‘Kiev’ and ‘LAL 186’. Temperature influences include the effect of vernalization at seedling emergence. Minimum grass temperatures under 5 °C at emergence are effective for vernalization. However, after grass temperatures at emergence increased again from June to December, to gether with an increase in the photoperiod length, ‘Tifwhite’ as well as the other genotypes still flowered earlier, confirming that these cultivars are long‐day plants, which is in accordance with controlled‐environment data. Cool vernalizing temperatures thus not only influence obligate vernalization requiring genotypes such as ‘Tifwhite’, but also influence the non‐obligate genotypes studied. Plan‐ting date had a significant influence on pods per plant, single seed mass (SSM) and seed yield. In all trials laterplanting, from June to November, decreased SSM and seed yield. The highest seed yield of 1.5 t ha−1 was obtained for the 10 June planting date and the lowest average yield of 0.450 t ha−1 for the 5 November planting date.

An experiment to determine the effect of temperature and photoperiod on Lupinus albus under controlled environmental conditions was carried out, using the three Lupinus albus genotypes ‘Tifwhite’, ‘Esta’ and ‘Kiev’, and three temperature (10/20, 18/28 and 20 °C continuously) and two photoperiod (8 and 16 h daylength) regimes, in all combinations. Half of the seeds were vernalized for 21 days at 4 °C to alleviate the obligate vernalization requirement of Tifwhite. Although Esta and Kiev do not have obligate vernalization requirements, they were influenced by this vernalization period. Observations included the duration of the period from planting to seedling emergence, the duration of the period from planting to the beginning of flowering and the duration of flowering. The vernalization treatment accelerated plant development in all genotypes. The period from planting to emergence was shorter under the higher temperature regime. For all genotypes, the period from planting to flowering was shorter under the longer photoperiod, the same trend as would be expected for long‐day plants. Duration of flowering periods were, in contrast to pre‐flowering periods, shorter for all genotypes at cooler temperatures. The results of this study confirm that photoperiod does contribute to the growth period from planting to flowering in L. albus and that this species does behave as a long‐day plant.