Water Relations of Beans II. Effects of Differential Irrigation on Yield and Seed Size of Broad Beans

Abstract

A crop of broad beans was subjected to different water treatments with a view to finding the most economical irrigation policy. Increments in yield were obtained from the sixth to ninth irrigation, but the relative significance of each irrigation after the sixth was dependent upon whether irrigation water was saved during the vegetative and early flowering phase, or during the phase of pod development. The influence of the different water regimes on yield components and on some attributes of growth was studied.The broad bean, the most popular pulse crop in the Sudan, has received attention from Sudanese experimentalists in various fields with a view to establishing information that would lead to improved yields. For instance, El Saeed (1968) analysed the effects of plant populations and varietal characteristics on yield, and Kambal (1968) studied the agronomic characteristics of the most important varieties grown in the Sudan, with a view to establishing correlations between final yield and yield components, so that a single character could be chosen as an index of superiority for selection in the field. El Nadi (1969a) studied the differential effects of water stress, induced at different stages of plant development, on several attributes of growth which were directly or indirectly related to the final yield. This contribution, a continuation of the earlier work conducted in the United Kingdom, was designed to find the best irrigation policy to ensure economic returns. MATERIALS AND METHODSSixteen plots were used, 4 x 4 m. in a 1 • 5 feddan field (1 feddan = 1 • 038 acres) in the Demonstration Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture. The plots were adequately guarded by the bean crop, especially in the direction of the prevailing winds. Sowing was on ridges 70 cm. apart, at a spacing of 25 cm. along the ridge. Five seeds per hole were planted on 15 November 1967.The experimental plots were watered by a pump with a known rate of discharge, and water was applied to the plots by means of a movable pressure pipe at the rate of 75 mm. per irrigation. The number of irrigations in the different treatments is given in Table 1. The rest of the field was furrow irrigated at intervals of 14 days.Besides the experimental plots, beans were grown in two different models of lysimeters in order to assess potential evaporation rates over short periods. Three

Effect of water stress at different periods on seed yield and water use efficiency of guar under Shambat conditions

“…Reduc- tion in seed size was found by earlier workers e.g. [10][11][12]. Although seed weight is a known component of yield, which reflects relationship between source and sink of photosynthate during pod filling stage, and it is where compensation for earlier losses of pods may occur, thus enhancing the final yield [13].The results of the present study are negating this fact, probably because the magnitude of the stress (between the control and the stressed treatments) was not so acute to disrupt or slow down the assimilate supply (translocation process) to the pods of the stressed plants.…”

Irrigation effects on the development and yield of determinate and indeterminate forms of autumn‐sown faba bean

“…In the treatment irrigated before and during flowering the two are separated and yields are lower and more erratic than when the two are married as in the treatment irrigated after flowering. This suggests that irrigation is more essential after flowering, and this therefore is an important moisture-sensitive stage (El Nadi 1970;Singh et al 1987). However, regression analysis of the harvest indices for each cultivar separately shows that 858 was unaffected by irrigation treatment.…”

The response of field beans (Vicia fabaL.) to irrigation and sowing date. 2. Growth and development in relation to yield

“…In contrast, the most consistent effect of spring sowing was to depress mass per bean (Hussain et al 1983). Other work on the response of field beans to irrigation and sowing date has produced similar results (El-Nadi, 1970;Thompson & Taylor, 1977;Farah, 1981;Hebblethwaite, 1982). To increase both the size and the consistency of field bean yields, it is important to determine how crop husbandry can be used to manipulate the pattern of crop growth and development to promote both the retention of more pods per plant and the growth of large beans within these pods.…”