fenugreek

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of fenugreek planting as a living mutch on the phenology, grain quality and yield of sunflower cultivars and to determine the most appropriate time for planting of sunflower. 

This experiment was done in 2016-17 growth season at Razi University. The experiment was conducted as split plot based on randomized complete block design. First factor was the sowing fenugreek at four levels (control (without living mulch), 15 days before sowing of sunflower, simultaneous sowing with sunflower, 15 days after sowing of sunflower) and the second factor was three sunflower cultivars (Progress, Farrokh, Lakomka). 

Planting of fenugreek as living mulch pre-sunflower led to a decrease in the quantitative and qualitative yield of sunflower. In 15 days before sunflower condition, grain, oil and protein yields of sunflower,were 38.5%, 37.9% and 43.6% lower than control treatment, respectively. In addition, the phenological stages of sunflower growth was delayed in pre-sunflower sowing conditions. So that the occurrence of staring, flowering, head formation and physiological maturity were 69.8, 21.8, 24.5 and 82.6 days, respectively (4.4, 1.1, 1 and 3 day) more than control conditions. However, planting of living mulch simultaneous and 15 days after sunflower had a positive effect on the quantitative and qualitative yield of sunflower grains. Grain, oil and protein yields of sunflower were 39.4%, 36.4% and 43.3% higher than control, respectively. These values were 25.5%, 26.7% and 23.5% after sunflower planting, respectively. Flowering and head formation stages in simultaneous planting conditions were 20.8 and 47.1 °C (0.7 and 1.4 days, respectively) and in post-sunflower sowing conditions were 42.3 and 122.6, respectively. Day growth rates were lower (1.8 and 4.6 days) than control conditions. Among sunflower cultivars, the occurrence of different phenological stages was higher for Progress cultivar than for Farrokh and Lakomka cultivars. Farrokh had the highest oil content (36%). The highest grain yield (3426 kg.ha-1), oil yield (1203 kg.ha-1) and protein yield (536 kg.ha-1) were allocated to Lacomka cultivar. 

It seems that competition between fenugreek plants and young sunflower plants seems to lead to poor vegetative growth and delay the time of phenological growth stages of sunflower by early sowing of mulch. These results confirm the importance of selecting the appropriate cultivar and minimizing competition by choosing the optimal planting time of living mulch, which gives the pottage-assisted effect a competitive advantage.

Application the living mulch as a non-chemical method to weeds control helps to improve sustainable agricultural systems management. Thus, the effect of sowing fenugreek as living mulch on different dates in weed control and sunflower yield was investigated at Razi University during the 2016-2017 growing season. Experiment was performed as factorial on randomized complete block design with three replications. First factor was the sowing fenugreek at four levels as control (without living mulch), 15 days before sowing of sunflower, simultaneous sowing with sunflower, 15 days after sowing of sunflower and the second factor was three sunflower cultivars (Progress, Farrokh, Lakomka). The results showed that mulch sowing reduced biomass and density of weeds at the beginning and end of the growing season. The Progress cultivar in weed control was superior to other cultivars. Competitive index for Progress, Farrokh and Lakomka cultivars was 1.67, 0.5 and 0.89, respectively. The weeds in non-control treatment (without weeding) reduced grain yield by 75.8%. In non-control condition, the presence of mulch could not improve yield. But in control condition, sowing of fenugreek simultaneous and after sunflower improved yields by 1083 and 703 kg.ha-1, respectively. In control and non-control conditions sowing of fenugreek before sunflower led to significant decrease of yield. In control condition, the Lakomka yield (3426 kg.ha-1) was higher than Progress and Farrokh yields. However, in non-control condition the difference of cultivars was not significant. It seems that in non-control condition, weeds competition with sunflower prevents from the positive effect of mulch and cultivars superiority in yield production.

The effect of fenugreek as living mulch on Grain yield, yield components and some morphological traits of sunflower, were evaluated by factorial experiment based on randomized complete block design with three replications at the Research Farm of Faculty of Agriculture, Razi University during the 2016-2017 growing season. Treatments were sowing of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graceum L.) as living mulch in four levels of control (without living mulch), 15 days before sowing, simultaneous sowing and 15 days after sowing of sunflower and three cultivars of sunflower (Farokh, Progress and Lakomka). The result showed that head diameter, number of head per plant, plant height, grain and biological yields of sunflower varieties were significantly affected by living mulch treatments. The highest head diameter (20.2 cm), number of head per plant (2.04), grain (3834 kg.ha-1) and biological yield (14150 kg.ha-1) were obtained by simultaneous sowing of fenugreek with sunflower. The simultaneous sowing of fenugreek with sunflower increased grain yield by 39% compared with control, while sowing fenugreek 15 days before sowing of sunflower reduced the grain yield by 2% compared to the control. Among sunflower cultivars, the highest grain yield (3426 kg.ha-1) was achieved by Lakomka cultivar. Genarally, the results showed that selection of suitable cultivar and sowing date of living mulch could improve the sunflower yield. Regarding the effect of fenugreek sowing date on sunflower traits and the different responses of cultivars studied, simultaneous sowing of fenugreek with sunflower Lakomka had the highest grain yield in experimental climatic conditions.

Biochar which is producing by thermal decomposition of organic material under limited supply of oxygen and relatively low temperatures, produces with the intent to be applied as a technique for improving soil properties. Adding biochar to the soils boosts soil fertility and improves the porosity, moisture, cation exchange capacity, pH, and development and reproduction of microbes in the long term. Research indicated that biochar potentially enhanced soil water holding capacity. This infers that soil amendment with biochar may improve crop productivity by retaining more water from rainfall in arid regions and reduce the frequency/amount of irrigation water in irrigated regions. Currently there is no logical method to increase precipitation during drought periods, therefore using drought resistance cultivars and appropriate agricultural techniques are the best solution to deal with this problem. Using soil amendments like biochar to increase water retention has been considered for a long time to decrease the drought effects. This study aimed to assess the effect of biochar on growth and yield of fenugreek landraces under deficit irrigation.

To assess the effect of biochar on growth and yield of fenugreek landraces under deficit irrigation, a field experiment was conducted in 2015 at the Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran, Karaj, Iran. Six branched fenugreek landraces including Dezful, Shushtar, Ardestan, Rehnan, Yazd, and KhomeyniShahr were treated by biochar application and non-application under 2 different irrigation intervals. A split plot factorial experiment in a randomized complete block design with three replications was used. Each plot had the size of 4 m × 2.5 m with a plant density of 40 plant m-2. Biochar was derived from rice husk at 500°C in an oxygen depleted environment. Biochar application rate was calculated based on bulk density for the 30 cm layer of the soil (8:92 v/v) and added to the top layer of the soil. Increasing irrigation interval from 4 to 8 days applied from 50% of flowering stage. Seeds were sown on May 10th and mature plants were harvested on November 11th. Plant height, number of main and secondary branches, as well as yield and yield components were measured. Statistical analyses were done using SAS (9.2) software.

According to the results, assessed traits were not significantly affected by triple interaction effect of treatments and also double interaction effect of landrace and biochar. But biochar application increased the number of main and secondary branches, 100-seed weight, and seed yield on 4- days irrigation interval by 19.75, 18.13, 17.54, and 24.33%, respectively and on 8-days irrigation interval by 2.61, 19.52, 8.67, and 26.66%, respectively. Moreover, increasing irrigation interval decreased plant height by 22.42, 22.01, 27.23, 13.66, 27.13, 26.62%; the number of main branches by 6.18, 7.92, 31.84, 16.66, 24.22%, 32.97%; the number of secondary branches by 40.54, 39.09, 40.99, 39.83, 40.89, 40.88%; 100-seed weight by 20.43, 8.70, 17.22, 26.98, 26.44, 23.11%; and seed yield by 61.20, 47.55, 50.12, 44.71, 38.44, 46.24% in Dezful, Shushtar, Ardestan, Rehnan, Yazd, and KhomeyniShahr landraces, respectively. However, the number of pods plant-1 and seeds pod-1 were not significantly affected by interaction effects of treatments. Several studies showed the reduction of crop growth and production under water deficit. Baradaran et al. (2013) also indicated increase in irrigation intervals decreased plant height, the number of pods, the number of seeds pod-1, and thousand-seed weight in fenugreek. This results are due to increase in allocation of photosynthetic material to roots than shoot resulting in smaller plants with less leaf area as a key factor in receiving solar radiation, water and energy exchange, and biomass production. Several studies reported increased water holding capacity by biochar addition because of its high adsorption capacity and porous structure. Akhtar et al. (2014) also reported that addition of biochar increased the soil moisture content in deficit irrigation which consequently improved physiology, yield and quality of tomato compared with non-biochar control.

In conclusion, adding biochar at a concentration of 7-8% to a loamy soil reduced the effect of water deficit on fenugreek growth and seed yield. Biochar increase seed yield by increasing seed weight rather than the number of pods plant-1 and seeds pod-1.

Water deficit stress limits agriculture crop production. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) play an important role in control of water deficit stress. Today, for improving of plant tolerance to stress and the production of healthy crops, the application of biofertilizers, including growth-promoting bacteria, is interest. The present study investigates the effects of two different PGPRs (Pseudomonas fluorescens and Sinorhizobium meliloti) on some physiological and morphological characteristics in fenugreek under water deficit stress. For this purpose, a factorial design based on randomized complete block design with four water deficit levels (100%, 80%, 60% and 40% FC) and four PGPR condition as control, Sinorhizobium meliloti, Pseudomonas fluorescens and combination of S. meliloti. and P. fluorescens with three replications were carried out. Irrigation treatments were applied after flowering of plants until harvesting. The results showed that leaf area, shoot and root fresh and dry weight, phosphorus and potassium content, and water use efficiency (WUE) were significantly improved by PGPR inoculation and individual use of PGPR was more effective, whereas seed yield was decreased in PGPR treated plants.

Agronomic approaches to weed management are effective, low-cost, environmentally-friendly options without adverse effects on human health. These approaches should be emphasized to develop a sustainable agriculture (Zimdahl, 2007). A living cover crop can affect weed competition by competing for growth resources and the residue of cover crops may affect weed growth and competition with their allopathic potential (Karbalaei-Khiavi et al., 2016). Fenugreek plants, with their shallow root system, ability of nitrogen-fixing as well as allopathic potential, were chosen as a cover crop to study the effects of various densities of fenugreek on growth and weed competition.
An experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with six treatments and three replications at the experimental station of Torbat-e Jam University in 2016. The treatments included the seeding of 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 fenugreek plants per square meter as a cover crop and a control treatment. The destructive sampling was taken to determine the dry matter production in sunflower, fenugreek and weed from 60 cm of rows. After examining the residuals for normality, analysis of variance was done using SAS software.
The highest and lowest weed dry matter were obtained from the densities of 0 and 20 fenugreek plants per square meter, respectively. The results showed that the planting of fenugreek, regardless of its density, at the same time as the sunflower planting reduced growth of competing weeds by at least 50%. This reduction can also be increased by up to 78% by establishing the appropriate density of fenugreek. The highest and lowest leaf area, dry matter production and seed yield in the sunflowers was obtained from densities of 20 and 40 cover crop plants per m-2, respectively. The presence of cover crops in all densities, except for 20 fenugreek plants per m-2, significantly reduced sunflower yield compared with the control. Regression analysis also showed that the response of sunflower growth and yield to increased cover crop density follows a quadratic trend. The sunflower growth and yield was reduced at lower and higher densities of cover crop compared to its optimum density. The role of cover crop densities higher than the optimum level, however, was greater than the lower one in reducing competing weeds. Thus, the establishment of a suitable plant density of fenugreek would occupy an existing vacant niche, reduce available growth resources, and ultimately reduce the growth of competing weeds (Mohammadi et al., 2015).
Due to the reduction of competing weeds in the presence of fenugreek and the economic value of fenugreek production, this plant can be used as an effective cover crop in sunflower fields as an option in a comprehensive weed management system.

In order to investigate the of effect intercropping on yield and yield components of onion (Allium cepa L.) and fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.), a factorial experiment was carried out based on completely randomized block design with three replications at the research field located in south of Kerman, Iran. The first factor was onion density (20- 25 and 30 plant.m-2) and the second factor was fenugreek plant density (12- 15 and 25 plant.m-2) and sole culture of plants with aforementioned densities were considered. After harvesting the number leaves and length of plants, fresh and dry weight, bulb diameter, fresh and dry weight of bulb, Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) and Relative Value Total (RVT) was measured. The results showed that the highest yield of onion (43.2 t.h-1) was obtained from 20 plant m-2. In intercropping treatment number of leaves, plant length, bulb fresh and dry weight was increased by decreasing plant density from 20 to 30 plant m-2. The highest fresh and dry weigh of onion bulb (167.2 and 11.64 g) was produced in 20 plant.m-2. Number leaf and length of the plant and fresh and dry weigh of onion was increased in intercropping. However intercropping fenugreek with onion had no significant effect on its yield in comparison with mono culture. The highest Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) (1.65) and Relative Value Total (RVT) (1.72 (was recorded in 30 plant.m-2 onion and 12 plant.m-2 fenugreek and 30 plant.m-2 onion and 25 plant.m-2 fenugreek combination culture respectively.

Fertilizer management is the most important factor in success of pharmaceutical crops cultivation. Application of biological fertilizers is important in production of these plants with the aim of elimination or significant reduction of chemical inputs and also increasing soil fertility and improvement of plant growth and quality. In order to investigate the effects of biofertilizers and chemical fertilizers on yield and yield components of fenugreek in strip intercropping with ajowan، a field experiment was conducted as factorial based on randomized complete block design with three replications and fifteen treatments in Nagadeh، Iran during growing season of 2011-2012. The fertilizer treatments included control (no fertilizer)، 100% chemical fertilizers (NPK) and biofertilizers +50% chemical fertilizers and strip intercropping patterns consist of 4 row of ajowan+ 2 row of fenugreek، 8 row of ajowan+ 4 row of fenugreek and 12 row of ajowan+ 6 row of fenugreek and sole cropping of each crop. Results showed that intercropping patterns had significant effect on all of mentioned traits. The maximum and the minimum grain yield and biological yield of fenugreek were obtained at monoculture and strip intercropping (12 row of ajowan+ 6 row of fenugreek)، respectively. Also، the effect of fertilizer was significant on yield and some yield components of fenugreek. Also، the effect of fertilizer was significant on yield and some yield components of both crops. The highest and the lowest grain yield and biological yield of fenugreek were obtained in chemical fertilizers and control، respectively. Calculation of LER revealed that the maximum LER values (1. 97) were obtained for strip intercropping (4 row of ajowan+ 2 row of fenugreek) with chemical fertilizers، respectively. This means that intercropping improved land use efficiency by 97%، compared with monocropping.