Dry Matter Accumulation and Chemical Composition in Bulgarian Varieties of Lentil
II. Chemical Composition of Lentil Varieties

T. K. TONEV1, I. MITOVA2, M. I. MIHOV1 and G. MILEV1

1Institute of Wheat and Sunflower "Dobroudja", BG-9520 General Toshevo, Bulgaria
2Institute of Soil Science and Agroecology "N. Poushkarov", BG-1336 Sofia, Bulgaria

Abstract

TONEV, T. K., I. MITOVA, M. I. MIHOV and G. MILEV, 2000. Dry matter accumulation and chemical composition in Bulgarian varieties of lentil. II. Chemical composition of lentil varieties. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 6: 9-15

The field trial with lentil was carried out in the period 1994 – 1996. Eight Bulgarian varieties and lines, and the Russian variety Tadjikskaya 95 were studied. The dry matter accumulation in plant organs was followed in four stages of the culture development. The dried and chopped plant samples were analysed for content of macro- and micro-elements (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Zn, Cu, Mn, Fe, Na, Al). Variety differences during the studied stages in the removal of the main macro-elements (N, P, K) were found. With the increase of biological matter accumulation the mean percentage of macro-elements in stem fell down from 7.21 % to 3.82 %, and in lentil leaves – from 8.66 % to 6.51 %. During maturity stage the content in the grain was as follow: N – between 3.02 % and 3.44 %; P – between 0.39 % and 0.50 %. The stems were richest in K (averagely 1.95 %) and the pods – in Ca (averagely 1.61 %). The differences between the varieties in total uptake of macro-elements were most clear in the vegetative organs and pods, while the grain of the studied varieties had similar characteristics. The studied lentil varieties contained in their grain averagely 38.2 mg.kg-1 dry matter Zn, 6.8 mg Cu, 25.4 mg Mn, 105.8 mg Fe, 163.1 mg Na and 39.6 mg Al. The most considerable differences between the varieties were in the content of Al (from 2 to 140 mg.kg-1 dry matter) and the lowest differences were in the Na content (from 150 to 187 mg). The relations between the chemical elements in the vegetative and reproductive plant parts, respectively, were studied through a correlation analysis calculated for the mean values of content. It was found out that Mg had the largest number of significant relations with other elements extracted from lentil stems (with 7 elements), followed by K (with 6 elements).

Key words: lentil, Bulgarian varieties, plant organs, macro-elements content, micro-elements content, relationships