Determination of Dry Matter Yield and Yield Components of Local Forage Pea (Pisum sativum ssp arvense L.) Ecotypes

Local forage pea (Pisum sativum ssp. arvense L.) ecotypes are commonly cultivated in the Eastern Anatolia Region for long years. The ecotypes show great variations in yields and plant characteristics and these genetically resources should definitely be protected and be used as breeding material. The current study was conducted to determine the dry matter yields and yield components of 18 forage pea ecotypes selected among 61 collected materials from Erzurum, Bayburt, Kars and Ardahan provinces. The experiments were carried out in the experimental fields of Ataturk University Agricultural Faculty during the years of 2008, 2009 and 2010 under irrigated conditions. Three-year averages revealed large variations in dry matter yield the number of days to harvest, plant height, lodging degree and forage quality parameters of the ecotypes. Dry matter yields of ecotypes varied between 4862 and 6854 kg ha(-1), the number of days to harvest between 79.0 and 91.1 days and plant heights between 68.8 and 102.0 cm. Among the investigated ecotypes, the Degirmencik-1 and Subatan were considered to be promising ecotypes for breeding studies and regional yield studies.