This study examined the adaptation of lentil
(Lens culinaris Medik. cv. Digger) to dryland
Mediterranean-type environments of southern Australia and determined the
effect of time of sowing on growth, yield, and water use. Phenology, canopy
development, radiation absorption, dry matter production and partitioning,
seed yield, and water use were measured from a range of sowing times at a
number of field locations in south-western Australia in 1994, 1995, and 1996.
Contrary to previous results with poorly adapted cultivars, our study showed
that lentil is well adapted to low to medium rainfall regions (300-500
mm/year) of south-western Australia and that seed yields greater than
1·0 t/ha and up to 2·5 t/ha can be achieved when sown
early. Even in the dry season of 1994 when May-October rainfall was <200
mm, yields of approximately 1·0 t/ha were produced from early
sowings. Seed yields were reduced with delayed sowing at rates of 4-29
kg/ha · day. Sowing in late April or early May allowed a longer
period for vegetative and reproductive growth, rapid canopy development,
greater absorption of photosynthetically active radiation, more water use,
and, hence, greater dry matter production, seed yield, and water use
efficiency than when sowing was delayed. Early-sown lentils began flowering
and filling seeds earlier in the growing season, at a time when vapour
pressure deficits and air temperatures were lower, and used more water in the
post-flowering period when compared to those treatments where sowing was
delayed. The values of water use efficiency for dry matter and grain
production, and transpiration efficiency, for early-sown lentil (up to 30
kg/ha · mm, 11 kg/ha · mm, and 20 kg/ha · mm,
respectively) were comparable to those reported for cereal and other grain
legume crops in similar environments. The development of earlier flowering
cultivars than Digger with greater dry matter production together with
improved agronomic packages will increase and stabilise lentil yields in low
rainfall environments of southern Australia.
Effects of Training on Tree Growth, Yield and Dry Matter Production in Japanese Pear ‘Kousui’ in a Soil Mound Rhizosphere Restricted Culture System