The Influence of Legume and Non-Legume Green Manures Along with Nitrogen Fertilizer Levels on Some Traits of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) as Subsequent Crop

Abstract

In order to evaluate the effects of green manures and various nitrogen fertilizer levels on some traits of wheat, a field experiment was conducted at the experimental farm of the Faculty of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran, during the 2010-2011 growing season. The experimental design was split-plot, N levels (i.e. 0, 50, 100 and 150 kg N ha-1) as main plots, and green manures (i.e. millet; GMMi, sesbania; GMS, amaranth; GMA, cowpea; GMC, mung bean; GMMb and control; NO-GM) as sub-plots with three replications. In this study some of the traits such as plant height, number of tillers in per plant and straw yield were investigated. According to the results, the main effect of N levels, green manures and interaction of treatment (N × GM) were significant effects on all traits. The highest plant height (95.67 cm), number of tillers in per plant (5.57) and straw yield (9.01 ton h-1) were obtained by using of 100, 100 and 150 kg N h-1, respectively. Meanwhile, the highest plant height (92.01 cm), number of tillers in per plant (5.03) and straw yield (8.88 ton h-1) were obtained as affected by GMMb, GMC and NO-GM (without green manure application), respectively. In this perspective, application of 100 to 150 Kg N h-1 and use of convenient legume crops as green manure especially GMMb and GMC can be useful to increase the studied wheat traits.