Heat Waves and Broomrape Are the Major Constraints for Lentil Cultivation in Southern Spain

Abstract

There is potential for expanding lentil cultivation to dry and warm Mediterranean rain-fed environments at low altitudes, where early sowings are recommended to profit from winter rains and escape drought and excessive heat at the grain filling stage. In cooler areas, frost might be a problem in the early sowings, however, in warmer areas such as our low altitude warm southern Spanish environments the most detrimental factor on lentil seed yield appeared to be high temperatures at grain-filling stage, particularly heat waves of more than 5 days with Tmax > 30 °C. This was followed by broomrape infection, the combination of both being dramatic. We detected variation for stress tolerance, with S17 and R7 accessions outstanding for all stress indexes used, followed by S23, Nsir, S6, and S12. Broomrape infection ranked second risk in the area. No complete resistance to broomrape was identified, but there was a significant variation in the level of infection, with accessions S14 and R17 being the more resistant across environments. This offers prospects for combining heat tolerance and broomrape resistance by breeding.