Effect of plant density on yield, yield components and some physiological indices of chickpea cultivars three

The yield of chickpea in Iran is low in comparison with other countries. One of the most important effective factors, is no application of optimal plant density and chickpea cultivars difference in response to plant density. In order to investigate the effect of plant density on yield and some physiological indices of chickpea cultivars, this experiment was conducted as factorial based on randomized complete blocks design with three densities 25, 35 and 45 plants in m-2 and three chickpea cultivars Jam, ILC-482 and Kaka at three replications at the research farm of Agriculture College of MohagheghArdabili University. The highest grain yield and the total dry matter accumulation in m-2 belonged to Kaka cultivar treatment combination in density 45 plants inm-2 and the lowest to density 25 plants in m-2 to Jam cultivar. The trend of crop growth rate and relative growth rate was similar to total dry matter. The results showed that plant density had significant effect on 100-grainweight, grains number per pod, pods number per plant, grains number per plant and grain yield .The highest grain yield was produced in Kaka cultivar with density 45 plants in m-2 and the lowest in density 25 plants in m-2 in Jam cultivar. So, it could be suggested that in order to increase the grain yield, total dry matter accumulation and the other physiological indices such as crop growth rate and relative growth rate, Kaka cultivar should be applied at density 45 plants in m-2.