
Farm Table says:
The take home messages from this GRDC funded research are below. Please access the full paper via the link below for methodology, references, acknowledgements and discussion.
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- Mungbeans are most vulnerable to drought stress during the pod filling phase. It is critical to ensure adequate moisture is available or has been applied by irrigation during this period
- Drought stress during pod filling reduces the number of grains per pod and the overall number of pods per plant
- Yield decreased in response to drought stress by 10-33% during vegetative growth, 5-27% during flowering and 53-75% from early-pod fill compared with well-watered. Yield response to drought differed between varieties
- Mungbeans compensate for lower pod number by increasing carbon allocation to remaining pods – increasing individual grain weight and partially offsetting yield losses for stress occurring during flowering
- Optimising sowing time or irrigation timing to avoid drought stress during pod-fill will improve grain yield stability.
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Figure 3. Maximum (red line) and minimum (blue line) temperatures (°C) from planting to the end of the pod-filling drought stress treatment.