Abstract

Chickpea is an important legume in crop rotation due to its nitrogen (N) fixing ability. It takes advantage of soil profile thereby providing nitrogen to other crops. Determination of amounts of deposited N and the efficient use of different chickpea genotypes on the study crops will be beneficial for plant breeding, in the use of fertilizer and sustainable agriculture. For the present investigation, 20 different chickpea genotypes made up of bacteria inoculated and non-inoculated with different N rates were used in pot experiment, in which a calcareous soil was used. Experimental design was completely randomized blocks with three replications and nitrogen was applied as ammonium nitrate in 0, 60 mg N kg^-1 rates. Phosphorus fertilizer as phosphoric acid (H₃PO₃) at the rate of 80 mg P kg^-1 was applied to all pots for optimum growth. Soil in pots was incubated after the harvest of chickpea plants. After incubation, Ziyabey 98 wheat variety was planted in the same pots to determine the subsequent effect of bacterium inoculated chickpea genotypes on N use efficiency of the studied plants without N fertilization. Wheats were harvested about seven weeks later and dry matter yield of plant, N concentration and amounts of N-uptake by wheat were determined. In addition, parameters of the agronomic N efficiency and the average efficiency index were calculated to show the differences between chickpea genotypes. Chickpea genotypes that were previously cultivated in pots significantly affected the dry matter yield of wheat. It can be said that bacterium inoculation does not positively affect N use efficiency. Dry matter yields of wheat that was planted in pots from which Gülümser, CaÄŸatay, Akcin-91 and Gökce chickpea genotypes were previously harvested were found to be higher than the other genotypes. It was pointed out that chickpea genotypes leaves different levels of N residue in soil. The selected chickpea genotypes will be excellent materials for plant breeders and biotechnologists to develop genotypes with efficient N-uptake and utilization capacities, it is also important for sustainable nutrient elements circle of soils.

Key words: Chickpea genotypes, bacteria inoculation, residual effect, nitrogen use efficiency.