Study on chickpea (Cicer arietinum) cultivars and advanced lines to without snow covering cold in autumn planting.

In order to study on cold tolerance (CT) of advanced and promised rainfed chickpea lines(13 genotypes with Jam cultivar as check) and relationship between CT and agronomic traits, two experiments were conducted under controlled and field conditions during 2010-2011 cropping season at Maragheh Dryland agricultural research station. The first experiment conducted under natural condition (fall sowing at field), using randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replications. In second experiment, the seeds of genotypes were planted in concrete planting boxes with one meter height from soil level, using RCBD with three replications and with using from nylon covers prevented from snow fall to planting beds during winter. Percentage of genotypes injuries from cold after ending of winter snow falls and cold (in early spring) was noted. Results under field condition showed that, there were significantly differences between genotypes in all studied traits (number of survived plants after winter cold, amount of cold damage after first and second sever cold, number of days from sowing till flowering and maturity, grain filling period, plant height, number of pods per plant, 100 seed weight, dry biomass weight, grain yield, harvest index and productivity score). Results in concrete planting boxes showed that, there were highly significant differences between genotypes in cold tolerance (without snow covering or bare cold = BC). Line number 9 (FLIP00-84C) with 87% of survived plants under field condition and 23% of BC (-20 º centigrade for two days) damage, was the tolerate line among the studied genotypes. There was negative and significantly correlation (r =-0.56) between CT under controlled condition and number of survived plants after winter at field condition. Also between BC damage and amount of cold damage of plants after 1st. and 2nd. sever cold in winter, there were positive and significantly correlations ( r = 0.56 and r = 0.50 , respectively). In conclusion of the results, there was conformity between results obtained from controlled and field conditions and using from box planting method could be recommended as a new and reliable method for chickpea germplasm screening for cold tolerance.