I - --ii

different from those of the latter. This paper presents the results of field experiments
on the response of winter-planted chickpeas to a set of agronomic factors.
Response to Advancing the Date of Planting
For precise evaluation of the effect of advancing the date of planting from
traditional spring planting, well designed replicated studies were started at the
ICARDA site in Tel Hadya, northern Syria in the 1977-78 cropping season
(Saxena 1980). Since the ascochyta blight resistant cultivars were not identified
by thens, studies had to be carried out with the agronomically superior genotypes
and the well adapted local landrace (ILC. 1929) under fungicidal protection. In
one such study, eight genotypes were planted on different dates covering a range
from early winter to spring. The seedling establishment in the last date of
planting (March 26) was extremely poor because of loss of moisture from the
surface layer and also becau'-' of the damage by birds.
The effect of the first four dates of planting on the average performance of
eight genotypes is shown in Tab. 1. Winter-planted crop resulted in taller plants
with a slightly greater number of branches and a significantly higher number of
pods than the spring-sown crop. This resulted ultimately in a yield advantage of
162% in the December-planted crop and of 112% in the early February planted
crop over the one planted in the first week of March. Evaluation of various yield
components revealed that the number of pods per plant was the most important
single factor through which these yield increases were obtained.
The effect of advancing the date of sowing by various periods, in contrast to
spring planting, on the performance of 20 diverse but promising genotypes was
examined again during the 1978-79 cropping season when the date of planting
Table I
Effect of dates uf planting on the mean plant height, number of branches and number of pods
per plant and grain yield of eight genotypes of chickpeas at Tel Hadya, 1977-78.
Date or Plant height Number/plant Grain yield
planting (cm) Branches Pods (kg/ha)
Dec 4 34.0 6.5 22.0 1767
Dec 29 32.3 6.5 19.4 1724
Feb 2 26.7 5.6 13.9 1415
Mar 6 22.3 5.0 10.9 666
LSD (5%) 3.9 0.8 3.0 211
125