Effects of seed priming and irrigation regimes on grain yield and components of spring and autumn-sown Hashem chickpea genotype in northern Lorestan, Iran

In order to study the effects of irrigation regimes, planting season and seed priming on grain yield and components of Hashem genotype of chickpea in Nurabad, northern Lorestan, two 3-replicate split-plot field experiments, one autumn- and the other spring-sown, were conducted. The primed and non-primed seeds (subplots) of this chickpea genotype were sown in autumn and spring and subjected to four irrigation levels (i.e. irrigation after 75, 100 and 150 mm evaporation from a Class-A Pan and no irrigation). Autumn-sown chickpea out-performed the spring-sown chickpea by 41.9, 7.4, 3.4, 32.5, 43.6, 62.9, and 13.7% in terms of pods/plant, plant height, 100-seed weight, seed weight/plant, dry matter and grain yield and harvest index, respectively. Irrigation after 75 (2296 kg/ha), 100 (2044 kg/ha) and 150 mm evaporation (1775 kg/ha) led to 75.4, 56.1 and 35.5% increases in grain yield, respectively, relative to the no irrigation condition (1309 kg/ha). Seed priming led to 8.5% increase in grain yield, averaged over planting seasons and irrigation levels. It could be concluded that while seed priming enhances grain yield, planting genotype Hashem in autumn along with irrigation after 75 mm evaporation may lead to notable increase in its grain yield in the northern regions of Lorestan.