The Effect of Management on Dryland Barley Yield under Entezar Conditions in Cold Regions: Cultivar Selection and Seed Density

The aim of this research was improvement of dryland farms production by selecting of cultivars and suitable seed density of dryland barley cultivars under entezar conditions of cold regions.

An experiment was carried out during 2019-2020 in North Khorasan province in the form of split plots in a completely randomized block design with three replications. Dryland spring and winter barley cultivars were evaluated as main plot and five densities of 150, 200, 250, 300 and 350 seeds per square meter were evaluated as sub-plots.

Spring cultivars showed better matching for entezar conditions. The results showed that in the first year, despite the superiority of grain yield of spring cultivars, this difference was not significant, but in the second year, spring Mahoor cultivar with 2393 kg / ha showed the highest and Artan winter barley with 1810 kg / ha showed the lowest grain yield, which indicated superiority of 32.2% in grain yield of Mahoor compared to Artan. Higher seed densities (250, 300 and 350 seeds/m2) showed maximum grain yield and were significantly superior to lower seed densities (150 and 200 seeds/m2).

According to the results, for entezar cultivation in cold area, spring barley cultivars such as Khorram, Behdan and Mahoor are suitable however, facultative Nader cultivar also had acceptable grain yield in these conditions and can replace spring cultivars if necessary to escape severe cold damage. Desirable seed density of barley cultivars for sowing in dryland entezar conditions will be 250-350 seeds/m2.