Improving the grain yield of lentils and chickpea grown on Mallee sands

About the Trial

A trial site was established near Ouyen in the Victorian Mallee on a deep sand dune soil. Deep ripping was undertaken in April to a depth of 50cm. The deep ripper was fitted with Tilco A66 tynes spaced at 56 cm apart. Crops were sown on two dates: 2^nd May and 1^st June 2022. At each sowing time four varieties of Chickpeas and Lentils were sown (Table 1)

Chickpea Varieties	Lentil Varieties
Genisis 090	PBA Bolt
CBA Captain	GIA Lightning
PBA Hatrick	PBA Jumbo2
PBA Magnus	GIA Leader

Table 1. Four varieties sown in this trial for Chickpea and Lentils.

Seasonal Conditions

Timely crop establishment was achieved with over 100 mm falling during the critical April – May sowing window. The site experienced a relatively dry winter period with just 60 mm of rainfall recorded from June to August. Extremely high levels of rainfall were received during spring with 300 mm of rain falling from September to early November with 126 mm of this received during October. Due to the sandy texture of the soil, waterlogging was not a problem, however the growing season was extended three weeks longer than normal. This made disease control difficult, and some level of disease was present in the crop.

Results: Lentil

Deep ripping increased lentil grain yield by 0.7 t/ha (Figure 1). The grain yield of PBA Bolt was 0.7 t/ha less than the other varieties included in the trial. As a single factor, delayed had only a minor impact chickpea grain yield in the very wet 2022 season.

When all three factors were combined there was a yield gap of 2 t/ha between the best and worst treatments (Figure 2). PBA Bolt sown early without deep ripping resulted in the worst yield outcome of the trial (0.4 t/ha), while late sown PBA Jumbo2 with deep ripping produced the best grain yield (2.4 t/ha.)

Figure 1. The impact of variety, deep ripping, and time of sowing on lentil grain yield. Error bars represent LSD.

Figure 2. Grain yield of each treatment where the factors of lentil variety, sowing time and deep ripping were combined. Error bars represent LSD.

Results: Chickpea

Deep ripping increased chickpea grain yield by 0.7 t/ha (Figure 3). Desi varieties CBA Captain and PBA Hattrick had a 0.6 t/ha advantage over the Kabuli varieties Genesis 090 and PBA Magnus. As a single factor, delayed had only a minor impact chickpea grain yield in the very wet 2022 season.

When all three factors were combined there was yield gap of 1.6 t/ha between the best and worst treatments (Figure 4). For example, sowing Desi chickpeas early following deep ripping resulted in a grain yield of 2.9 t/ha while sowing Kabuli chickpeas late into un-ripped soil resulted in a grain yield only 1.3 t/ha.

Figure 3. The impact of variety, deep ripping, and time of sowing on chickpea grain yield. Error bars represent LSD.

Figure 4. Grain yield of each treatment where the factors of chickpea variety, sowing time and deep ripping were combined. Error bars represent LSD.

Acknowledgements

This virtual field day has been developed as part of the Mallee Sustainable Farming (MSF) project:
“Facilitating enhanced knowledge sharing of Mallee sustainable farming practices”
This project is supported by the Mallee Catchment Management Authority, through funding from the Australian Governments’ National Landcare Program.