Germination Characteristics of Seeds Obtained from Four Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Cultivars under Different Irrigation Levels

The most important factor limiting crop production is water shortage in arid and semiarid regions. One of the effects of water shortage is its impact on the quality of crops seeds. In order to evaluation of germination characteristics in seed obtained from farm studies of four chickpea cultivar (Piruz, Kaka, Azad and ILC-482) under different irrigation levels (full irrigation, deficit irrigation and rainfed), an experiment was conducted using a factorial arrangement based on completely randomized design with three replications in Plant Physiology Laboratory of Kurdistan university in 2010. Results showed that characteristics amount of germination rate, root and shoot length, root and shoot weight, seedling vigor index and 100 seeds weight were more by 19.2%, 25.4%, 21.9%, 38.1%, 33.6%, 26.5% and 14.1%, respectively in seeds obtained from plants under full irrigation treatment compared to that under rainfed condition. Also results indicated that there were significant differences among studied cultivars for all the characteristics. The cultivars of Desi type and especially Kaka cultivar were superior for all studied characteristics except germination rate, radicle length to plumule length ratio, radicle weight to plumule weight ratio and 100 seed weight traits compared with cultivars of Kabuli type.