Foliar nitrogen applications increase the seed yield and protein content in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) subject to terminal drought
Jairo A. Palta A B E , Ajit S. Nandwal C , Sunita Kumari D and Neil C. Turner A BA CSIRO Plant Industry, Private Bag No. 5, Wembley, WA 6913, Australia.
B Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
C Department of Botany, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana 125 004, India.
D Department of Plant Physiology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India; present address: Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, George Mason University, Manassas, VA 20110, USA.
E Corresponding author. Email: Jairo.Palta@csiro.au
Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 56(2) 105-112 https://doi.org/10.1071/AR04118
Submitted: 22 May 2004 Accepted: 14 December 2004 Published: 28 February 2005
Abstract
The effect of foliar application of isotopically labelled nitrogen (15N-urea) at 4 stages during flowering and podding on the uptake and utilisation of nitrogen by chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under conditions of terminal drought was investigated in a glasshouse study. Five treatments were used to investigate the effect of timing of foliar application of urea, equivalent to 30 kg N/ha, on the uptake and utilisation of nitrogen for biomass, yield, seed protein content, and seed size: foliar application at (i) first flower, (ii) 50% flowering, (iii) 50% pod set, and (iv) the end of podding, and (v) an unsprayed control treatment. Terminal drought was induced from pod set onward, resulting in a rapid development of plant water deficits (–0.14 MPa/day) and a decrease in leaf photosynthesis irrespective of the timing of foliar urea application. Foliar applications of urea at first flower and at 50% flowering, before terminal drought was induced, increased yield and seed protein content. The increase in yield resulted from an increase in the number of pods with more than one seed rather than from increased pod number per plant or increased seed size, indicating greater seed survival under terminal drought. Also, the increase in the seed protein content resulted from increased nitrogen availability for seed filling. Foliar application of urea during flowering, before terminal drought was induced, resulted in 20% more biomass at maturity, suggesting that growth prior to the development of water shortage increased the carbon resources for sustained seed filling under conditions of terminal drought. Foliar applications of urea at 50% pod set and at the end of podding did not affect the yield or seed protein content, primarily because the uptake of nitrogen was limited by the leaf senescence that occurred with the development of terminal drought. The results indicate the potential to increase yields of chickpea by application of foliar nitrogen near flowering in environments in which terminal droughts reduce yield.
Additional keywords: seed protein, seed survival, 15N-urea, timing of foliar application, leaf photosynthesis.
Acknowledgments
We thank Christiane Ludwig and Rebecca Tideswell for technical assistance, and Dick Phillips for the analysis of the isotopic 15N plant material. We also thank Drs Jens Berger, Patrizia Gremigni, and Jon Clements for their comments on the manuscript. Dr A. S. Nandwal thanks the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and CCS Haryana Agricultural University, and Dr S. Kumari thanks the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute for support that made their visits to Western Australia possible. CSIRO and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) supported this research.
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