Evalution of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes under autumn sown rainfed conditions in North Khorasan

The results of several studies in Iran and the world indicated that rain-fed autumn and winter sown chickpea yield were superior to conventional spring sown due to increased vegetative and reproductive stage length and increased utilization of soil moisture and precipitation and so change the planting season of the crop is running in many parts of the country. In order to evaluate the possibility of sowing chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in autumn in North Khorasan, this experiment was conducted with seven cold tolerant chickpea genotypes and a local check cultivar in a randomized complete block design with four replications in two regions, viz. Sisab (in Bojnourd) and Lojali (in Shirvan). The results of the present study revealed that in the field in Lojali the highest seed yield belonged to SEL93TH24460 and FLIP 97-211C lines with 279.8 Kg/ha and 278.3 Kg/ha, respectively and local check in this region had the lowest seed yield (179.1 Kg/ha), in addition to high yield, FLIP 97-211C had the highest plant height and 100-seed weight. In Sisab region the highest seed yield (188 Kg/ha) belonged to FLIP 00-82C and the lowest seed yield (117 Kg/ha) belonged to FLIP 00-75C. It is necessary to point out that the latter line had the highest plant height and it was also the late flowering and maturing line of the present experiment. Low precipitation, extreme cold without snow cover in the region, and eventually severe drought stress and heat in the end of season caused a drop in yield. Relatively good survival of some genotypes in this experiment under mentioned condition, with further studies in incoming years, obtaining genotypes siutable for Autum sowing is promising