Growth, production and yield of common bean under water replacement levels

ABSTRACT The bean is a world-class crop and requires adequate water management for higher yield. The objective of this study was to evaluate the growth and the production and to fit multiple regression models to estimate the production components, total biomass accumulation and grain yield of ‘Rosinha’ bean under levels of replacement of evapotranspired water. The experimental design was randomized blocks with four repetitions. Treatments consisted of fractions of crop evapotranspiration (25, 50, 75, 100, 125 and 150% ETc). Growth variables (plant height, number of leaves, leaf area per plant, leaf area index, stem dry mass and leaf dry mass) and production components (number of pods per plant, pod length, pod diameter, pod dry mass, total biomass, pod mass per plant, grain yield) were evaluated. Measurements of growth variables carried out at 35 days after sowing were used to fit multiple regression models to estimate dry pod mass, total biomass accumulation and grain yield of common bean. Higher growth and yield of common bean, ‘Rosinha’, are obtained with irrigation depth corresponding to 100% of the evapotranspired water.