Modelling the effects of drought stress and weeds competition on quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) yield

Quinoa is a pseudo cereal from Amaranthaceae family, which is currently considered as a suitable alternative for plants with high water consumption due to its high nutritional value and stresses tolerance, especially drought and salinity. Meanwhile, reduction in crop yield caused by weeds competing for water, light and nutrients is well known. Hence, a study was conducted in Karaj to investigate the competitive capacity of quinoa with weeds under normal irrigation and drought stress and also to determine the required time for weed control. The experiment was arranged in split plot randomized complete block design with four replications consisted of irrigation levels (60, 80 and 100 mm evaporation from the evaporation pan) as main plots and weed control levels (0, 7, 14, 28 days of control and control in all seasons) as subplots. The highest quinoa grain (331 g/m2) and biological yields (1262 g/m2) were obtained under normal irrigation in weeds free treatment. Also, the lowest grain and biological yields were 139 and 723 g/m2, respectively that obtained under high drought stress in weeds infestation during growing season. In one month weeds free treatment under medium drought stress, grain and biological yields were 290 and 1010.25 g/m2, which show that despite the competitive potency of summer weeds, quinoa has good competitiveness in drought stress, and with one month of weed control, can achieve performance close to full control. In logistic model fitting to the grain yield, the maximum and minimum values of y0 and a, i.e. upper and lower limits, were observed in normal irrigation and high drought stress, respectively; although, the maximum and minimum values of GDD50 were obtained in high drought stress and normal irrigation, respectively.