Study on effect of cultivar and planting time on density and damage of chickpea pod borer, Heliothis viriplaca Hufnagel (Lep.: Noctuidae) in the Bukan region, west Azerbaijan province

In order to study the effect of cultivar and planting time on control of chickpea pod borer, Heliothis viriplaca, an experiment was conducted in a factorial based on randomized complete block design with three replications in a field in Bokan, Iran. The first factor was chickpea cultivars, including Adel, Grit, Jam, Azakan and Mansour, and the second factor was three planting times on March 19th, April 4th and April 20th. Analysis of variances showed that there were significant differences among different cultivars and different planting times for all studied traits (p < 0.01). Interaction of cultivar and planting time were significant on all studied traits except the 100 seeds weight (p < 0.05). The highest number of pods per plant (17.66±0.57pods), the number of infested pod per plant (5.11±11.44pods/plant), number of infested seeds (3.01±0.97seeds/plant), 100 seeds weight (41.27±2.31g), dry matter yield (2872.6±19.52kgha-1) and grain yield (1915.0±131.69kgha-1) were observed in the Adel cultivar on March 19th. The highest number of pod borers per plant (1.20±0.22larvae/plant) and infestation percent (48.90±4.17%) was belonged to the Jam cultivar at the planting time of March 19th. Based on the interaction of cultivar and planting time, the lowest number of pod borers larvae, the number of infected pods per plant, the pod infestation and the number of infested seeds were belonged to the Adel cultivar at the planting time of April 19th, and the highest number of pods per plant, dry matter yield and grain yield were observed in the Adel cultivar at the planting time of March 20th.