Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) response to zinc, boron and molybdenum application under field conditions

Figures & data

Figure 1  Climatic conditions at Ribas de la Valduerna (León, Spain) during the experimental period (Source: Meteorological Station, Sugar Refinery, La Bañeza, Spain).

Table 1  Main physical and chemical characteristics of soils used in the experiments, with local names.

	Soil (local name) - Year
	Sotico - 2006	Housa - 2007	Era - 2008
Texture (Bouyoucos densimeter)	Loam	Loam	Loam
Organic matter (Walkley-Black) (g kg^−1)	2.1	2.3	2.3
pH (1:2.5, water)	5.6 medium acid	5.9 medium acid	6.2 slight acid
EC (1:5, water) (dS m^−1)	0.06	0.13	0.06
Calcium carbonate (Bernard calcimeter) (g kg^−1)	Negligible	Negligible	Negligible
P (Olsen) (mg kg^−1)	31.6	26.1	8.5
K (1 N NH4 Ac) (cmolc kg^−1)	0.55	0.15	0.19
Ca (1 N NH4 Ac) (cmolc kg^−1)	3.07	4.43	4.63
Mg (1 N NH4 Ac) (cmolc kg^−1)	0.59	0.73	0.92
Na (1 N NH4 Ac) (cmolc kg^−1)	0.09	0.02	0.06
Mn (DTPA) (mg kg^−1)	9.79	17.50	16.59
Fe (DTPA) (mg kg^−1)	105.0	160.0	83.7
Cu (DTPA) (mg kg^−1)	1.12	1.38	1.38
Zn (DTPA) (mg kg^−1)	1.26	2.03	1.53
B (hot water) (mg kg^−1)	1.95	0.15	0.40
Mo (nitric acid digestion) (mg kg^−1)	1.76	2.32	0.61
EC electrical conductivity
DTPA diethyl triamine penta-acetic acid

Table 2  Effects of concentration of Zn, B and Mo applications on dry matter production of chickpea plants at maturity, indicating significance of analysis of variance and coefficient of variation (CV).

	Root DW (g plant^−1)	Leaf-stem DW (g plant^−1)	Pod (including seeds) DW (g plant^−1)	Total DW (g plant^−1)	HI (%)
Environment (E)	P ≤ 0.01	P ≤ 0.01	P ≤ 0.01	P ≤ 0.01	P ≤ 0.01
Zinc application (Zn)	P ≤ 0.01	P ≤ 0.01	P ≤ 0.01	P ≤ 0.01	NS
Zn0	0.50	4.27	6.03	10.79	44.27
Zn0.5	0.53	5.00	7.19	12.71	44.30
Zn1	0.59	5.49	8.68	14.76	46.90
Zn2	0.59	5.56	8.82	14.97	46.20
Zn4	0.62	5.47	8.44	14.53	45.79
Boron application (B)	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS
B0	0.56	5.05	7.49	13.10	45.37
B1	0.57	5.26	8.17	14.01	45.62
Molybdenum application (Mo)	P ≤ 0.05	NS	P ≤ 0.01	P ≤ 0.01	P ≤ 0.01
Mo0	0.54	4.91	6.92	12.37	43.99
Mo1	0.59	5.40	8.75	14.74	46.99
Interactions
Zn×B	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS
Zn×Mo	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS
B×Mo	NS	NS	P ≤ 0.01	P ≤ 0.01	NS
Zn×B×Mo	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS
CV (%)	40.1	59.7	53.1	50.4	20.7
DW dry weight
HI harvest index
NS not significant

Figure 2  Effect of environment on yield components (P/P = pods plant⁻¹; S/P = seeds pod⁻¹; 1000-W = 1000-seed weight in g), yield (Y = g plant⁻¹), total dry weight (total DW = g plant⁻¹) and harvest index (HI).

Table 3  Mean yield components and seed yield of the main treatment, indicating significance of analysis of variance and coefficient of variation (CV).

	Yield components
	Pods plant^−1	Seeds pod^−1	1000-seed weight (g)	Yield (g plant^−1)
Environment (E)	P ≤ 0.01	P ≤ 0.01	P ≤ 0.01	P ≤ 0.01
Zinc application (Zn)	P ≤ 0.01	NS	NS	P ≤ 0.01
Zn0	14.29	1.11	289.76	4.69
Zn0.5	16.84	1.13	288.18	5.67
Zn1	20.63	1.10	291.54	6.65
Zn2	20.65	1.10	293.19	6.80
Zn4	20.10	1.09	296.58	6.55
Boron application (B)	NS	NS	NS	NS
B0	17.99	1.11	288.93	5.80
B1	19.02	1.10	294.77	6.30
Molybdenum application (Mo)	P ≤ 0.01	NS	NS	P ≤ 0.01
Mo0	16.44	1.11	288.65	5.37
Mo1	20.57	1.10	295.04	6.73
Interactions
Zn×B	NS	NS	NS	NS
Zn×Mo	NS	NS	NS	NS
B×Mo	P ≤ 0.01	NS	NS	P ≤ 0.01
Zn×B×Mo	NS	NS	NS	NS
CV (%)	47.4	6.0	9.6	52.4
NS not significant

Figure 3  Relationships between zinc soil application and relative dry matter production of different chickpea plant organs. RWR = root weight ratio, LSWR = leaf-stem weight ratio, PWR = pod weight ratio and HI = harvest index.