BEHAVIOR OF NEW COWPEA LINES IN SANDY SOIL CONDITIONS IN SOUTHERN OLTENIA

Abstract

The research was carried out in the period 2024-2025 and aimed at the comparative competition culture behavior of seven new cowpea lines obtained at the Research and Development Station for Plant Culture on Dăbuleni Sands, in order to introduce the most valuable ones into culture. The results obtained showed that the vegetation period of the new cowpea lines lasted 69.5-82.5 days, by accumulating total thermal resources in the air of 1637.9-1970.7 0C, standing out by earliness of 12.5-15.5 days compared to the Doljana variety (control), the LD 5/2020 and LD 6/2020 lines. Compared to the control variety, the new cowpea lines recorded lower values of plant height and leaf index and better fruiting of the plant. The lines with the best production results (1718.51-2007.11 kg/ha) were highlighted: LD 3/2020, LD 5/2020 and LD 6/2020, which stood out significantly and distinctly significantly from the Doljana variety. The grain production obtained from the assortment of cowpea genotypes studied was distinctly significantly positively correlated with the number of pods/plant (r=0.838**) and significantly negatively correlated with the leaf area index (r= - 0.754*). From the point of view of production quality, the lines LD 1/2020, LD 3/2020, LD 5/2020 and LD 6/2020 stood out for their high crude protein content in the grain (26.19-26.72%), with differences of 1.59-2.2%, statistically assured compared to the control variety.