The effect of foliar application of urea and humic acid in rain-fed conditions on yield and yield components of chickpea

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of time and integrated application of urea and humic acid on yield and yield components of chickpea (Cicer arietinum) in rain-fed condition in 2013 at Joghatai, Khorasan-e-Razavi province, Iran. Treatment was arranged as factorial experiment based on completely randomized block design with three replications. Factors were fives combination of urea and humic acid (100% urea, 25% urea+75%humic acid, 50%urea +50%humic acid, 75%urea+25%humic acid and 100% humic acid) and times of foliar application (vegetative and vegetative+flowering). Urea 1% and humic acid (2 lit.ha-1) was used for foliar application. Result showed that interaction between time and integrated application had significant effect on number of lateral branches, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, plant height, economic and biological yield. The greatest economic yield was achieved in combination of 75% Urea+25% humic acid at vegetative stage and combination of 25% Urea+75% humic acid at vegetative+flowering stage. Increasing of urea fertilizer at combination in vegetative stage increased number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, plant height, seed weight and number of lateral branches while it decreased these traits on vegetative+flowering stage. In both times, integrated application of humic acid and urea fertilizer had greater yield and yield components compared with two fertilizers alone. Overall results indicated that once spraying with the mixture of 75% nitrogen and 25% humic acid is better than other treatments to achieve good economic yield in dry conditions.