Effect of plant density and harvest date on productivity of pea seeds Pisum sativum L. var. Progress No.9

Abstract

This study was conducted at the National Center for Propagation and Handling of Improved Seeds station, Sid Al-Masry, Tripoli, Libya. To track the different effects of planting distances between plants within a single line 10, 20 and 30 cm and early and late harvest dates and the interaction between them on some growth characteristics, productivity, and seed quality of pea crop. Pisum sativum var. Progress No. 9. The results of the study showed that increasing the planting distances between plants from 10 to 30 cm significantly (P<0.05) increase in weight of seeds (g)/plant Which was 22.5 gm/plant respectively. As for the total seed productivity the results indicated a decrease in this productivity by increasing the planting distances between plants from 10 to 30 cm, which was 4394, 1668 kg/ha. Respectively, the effect of harvest date was reflected in the results of the seed weight per plant and the total seed productivity, as early harvest excelled in these two characteristics compared to the late harvest 22.6, 19.1 g/plant, 3022, 2521 kg/ha, respectively, as for the effect of harvest date, the results indicated that there were no significant differences in the degree, of pod filling between early and late harvest. The results showed that the interaction between planting distances and harvest dates did not generally lead to significant differences in most of the studied characteristics related to the seed weight, pod filling, and total seed productivity. As for the highest thousand seed weight, it was obtained at a distance of 30 cm in early and late harvest, while the degree of pod filling decreased significantly when the planting distance was 30 cm in early and late harvest, 0.62 and 0.64, respectively. As for the total productivity, it decreased with increasing the planting distances between plants from 10 to 30 cm for all early and late harvest dates.