Influence of temperature regime on heat unit accumulation in relation to phenology and yield of chickpea

A field experiment was conducted during rabi, 2014-15 at Dharwad, Karnataka to investigate the effect of temperature regimes on thermal unit requirement for crop phenology, and yield of chickpea with three genotypes (Annigeri-1, JG-11 and JG-14) as influenced by five dates of sowing (D). The investigation revealed that the D1 to D3 temperature regimes took significantly maximum number of days to attain the first flowering (41.67 days), 50% flowering (50.44 days), first podding (60.11 days)and for physiological maturity (102.3 days) and more efficient in availing the growing degree days (GDD), heat use efficiency (HUE) and grain yield (29.03 q ha-1). Genotype, JG-14 attained all the phenological stages quickly and yielded on par (21.17 q ha-1) with Annigeri-1 and JG-11 under all the temperature regimes, indeed, the higher yield was realized by Annigeri-1 (21.24 q ha-1) with maximum accumulation of HUE and GDD. Apparently, genotype, JG-14 exhibited optimum phenological, thermal unit attributes and yield under all temperature regimes.