Two field experiments were conducted under naturally infested orobanche fields at Sakha Agricultural Research Station, Kafrelsheikh, Egypt during 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 seasons. The aim of this investigation was to study the effect of sowing date and broomrape control on seed yield and yield related traits of three faba bean cultivars; Misr 1, Giza 843 and Sakha 2.
Three sowing dates; first Nov., mid Nov. and first Dec. beside three doses of glyphosate application; control, 75 cm3/fed. and 75 cm3/fed. twice were involved in this study. A split-split plot design with three replications was used. Sowing date were allocated to the main plots and glyphosate application treatments were allocated in the sub plots while, faba bean cultivars were occupied the sub sub plot.
The most important findings could be summarized as follows:
The differences among sowing dates were significant or highly significant for all the studied traits in both seasons except for number of pods/plant and biological yield (ton/fed) in the second season.
Sowing date on mid-Nov. exhibited the highest values for all the studied traits, but, the differences between the second and the third sowing date were not significant for number of pods/plant and number of seeds/plant (in the first season) also the differences between the first and the second sowing date were not significant for seed yield (ard./fed.) and biological yield (ton/fed) in the first season.
Increasing glyphosate doses from zero up to 75 cm3/fed twice were associated with significant increase in number of pods/plant, number of seeds/plant and seed yield/plant, seed yield (ard./fed.). However, the differences between application of 75 cm3 glyphosate once or twice were not significant for seed yield (ard./fed.) and biological yield in the first season.
Large variations among the three faba bean cultivars were recorded for all the studied characters. Misr 1 cultivar detected the highest values for all the studied characters however, the differences between Misr 1 and Giza 843 were not significant for seed yield (ard./fed) in the second season and for biological yield in both seasons.