INFLUENCE OF SEEDING RATES AND SOWING METHODS ON THE PHOTOSYNTHETIC POTENTIAL OF CHICKPEA PLANTS IN THE EASTERN FOREST-STEPPE OF UKRAINE

Abstract

Among pulses grown in Ukraine, chickpea is a promising and competitive crop. The crop is capable of producing high yields of appropriate quality at high air temperatures during the growing season. Chickpea cultivation contributes to a number of issues, including improving soil structure and fertility, accumulating nitrogen in the soil, and solving the issue of vegetable protein deficiency. The high price of chickpeas on the foreign market is also important, making it a promising product for sales. In the Eastern Forest- Steppe of Ukraine, chickpea is still a rare and insufficiently researched crop. Therefore, there is a pressing issue of expanding chickpea acreage and improving the elements of crop cultivation technology. The aim of the research was to establish the complex effect of seeding rates and sowing methods on the photosynthetic potential of chickpea plants of Budzhak and Odisei varieties during the growing season. The research has established that the photosynthetic potential of plants of the studied chickpea varieties was significantly influenced by the studied factors, namely, seeding rates and variants of sowing methods. It was found that in the ripening phase the photosynthetic potential was maximized. Thus, in the varieties Budzhak and Odysseus it was 100,00 and 101,40 thousand m²/ha ‧ days, respectively. In the phase of branching, flowering and ripening, the highest values of photosynthetic potential were observed in the variants of the row sowing method with a row spacing of 15 cm and the maximum seeding rate in the experiment - 900 thousand seeds/ha. Thus, in the variety Budzhak the studied indicator was 40,20, 80,10 and 100,00 thousand m²/ha ‧ days, and in the variety Odyssey – 41,00, 83,20 and 101,40 thousand m²/ha ‧ days, respectively. In both studied varieties, there was a tendency to increase photosynthetic potential with an increase in seeding rate. However, there was also a tendency to decrease the growth of photosynthetic index with increasing seeding rate. The variability of the studied index was also affected by sowing methods, but their influence was much less than that of seeding rates. It is worth noting that with the expansion of row spacing from 15 to 45 cm, the maximum decrease in the photosynthetic potential of chickpea plants was observed in all phases of measurements. Thus, in the phase of branching, flowering and ripening in the Budzhak variety with the expansion of row spacing from 15 to 45 cm, the photosynthetic potential decreased by 3,4, 3,5 and 6,4 thousand m²/ha ‧ days, and in the Odyssey variety by 3,1, 3,3 and 10 thousand m²/ha ‧ days, respectively.