Effects of date and depth of sowing on development of Fusarium wilt in chickpea cultivars

Effects of date and depth of sowing on incidence of chickpea wilt incited by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri and crop yield were evaluated on three chickpea cultivars in Lorestan، Kohdasht during 2014، using a factorial experiment based on RCBD design with four replications. Sowing date with three levels of early November، early December and early March were used as main plots. Planting depth including 5، 9 and 13 cm depth were used as sub plots and three chickpea cultivars including Adell، Hashem and Arman were used as sub sub plots. Rows were 30 cm apart and distance between seeds in a row was 10 cm. The rate and severity of disease symptoms were recorded every 7 to 10 days. The results showed that the effect of planting date on all the indicators، yield & disease severity was significant. Statistical analysis showed that sowing in March resulted in highest infection and lowest yield compared with the earlier sowing dates. Advancing the sowing date from early March to early October doubled the crop yield and decreased disease by 41 percent. Different depths of sowing did not show significant differences in yield nor disease incidence. Interaction of sowing depth × cultivars، however، revealed that highest yield was obtained in the third sowing depth in Adell cultivar.