Study of cold tolerance in chickpea (cicer arietinum l.) Genotypes in fall-sown nurseries

Work on cold tolerance in chickpea has been initiated since the advantages of fall sown crop over traditional spring sown crop were realized. In order to evaluate cold tolerance and yield potential in high altitude and cold regions, genetic variation in forty entries of chickpea together with one susceptible control (ILC 533) was studied in a RCB design with two replications in fall sowing under rainfed conditions ip Kurdistan province during 2000-02 cropping seasons. In this nursery the susceptible control (ILC 533) was sown after every two entries. Different characteristics e.g. seed yield, days from sowing to flowering, 100 seeds weight, plant height, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, number of primary branches, and number of secondary branches were recorded. Annual and combined analysis of variance showed that there were significant differences among genotypes for seed yield, Number of secondary branches,100 seeds weight and cold tolerance (P < 0.05). Sixteen entries showed a desirable level of tolerance 3, based on 1 to 9 scale (1 = healthy and 9 = killed due to frost). By investigation into the pedigrees of entries, it was revealed that cold tolerant entries (FLIP 95-255C, FLIP 93-260C and Sel95 TH1716) are derived from crosses between cultivated chickpea with C. reticulatum (ILWC 182), a wild relative of cultivated chickpea (c. arietinum L.).