Determination of optimal plant density and cultivar selection is one of the seed yield increment approaches in chickpea. With this in regard, a field experiment of factorial design in RCBD with four replicates was performed at Tehran University Research Farm (Karaj-Iran) in 2001, to evaluate the effects of plant density (viz., 27, 36, 46 and 57 plants/m2) on seed yield, yield components, and certain physiological traits in 4 chickpea cultivars (i.e. Jam, Koroush, ILC-482 and Karaj 12 – 60 – 31). The experimental results showed that the increasing density (from 27 to 46 plants/m2) had a seed yield advantage. Moreover, increasing plants per unit area resulted in an increment in plant height and in leaf total chlorophyll content (LTCC). However, the lower densities, due to lack of plant competition, resulted in a significant increase (P 0.01) in single plant yield (g), number of secondary branches and pods per plant, seeds per pod, stem remobilization percentage (SRP) and harvest index. The relationship between single plant yield and SRP (r=0.68**), and also the correlation between seed yield per unit area and LTCC (r=0.60**) were highly significant. Among the chickpea cultivars, ILC-482 and Koroush had the highest and the lowest seed yields (kg/ha), yield components, SRP and LTCC under Karaj climatic conditions. In this study, despite the non-significant interaction effects between plant density and chickpea cultivar, with the utilization of DMR test, the ILC-482 cultivar with average seed yield of 2878.3 kg/ha and plant density of 46 plants/m2 were found to be the best treatment combinations.
)