Abstract

A field work experiment was conducted to evaluate the influence of six different barley cultivars (Athroh, Rum, Yarmok, Mutah, Acsad 176 and local landrace) and three levels of potassium (K) application grown (0, 10 and 20 kg/ha) at two different ecosystems on barley production and morphological parameters. The experimental design was a randomized complete block (RCBD) design with split plot arrangement of treatments (K application level as a main plot and barley cultivars as sub-plot) with three replications. The investigated parameters included production and phenological traits: plant height at maturity, grain yield, biological yield, straw yield, number of spikes per plant, 100-kernel weight, average spike weight, days from emergence to heading (time needed for 50% of spikes to be fully emerged from flag leave), days of emergence to maturity (time needed for 50% of peduncles to change in colour to yellow), number of kernels per spike, number of spikes per meter, grain filling period (days) and harvest index. Results showed that different barley cultivars possessed different response under different growing locations. Mutah cultivar had the best performance among other cultivars at Rabba location. However, at Ghweer location, both Athroh and Yarmok cultivars had the best performance. This study also revealed that K application levels did not influence any of production parameters except for number of spikes per unit area (higher at high K application level). From this study, it can be concluded that under specific experiment growing conditions, barley cultivars had different responses at different locations with no significant influence of K application on growth and production parameters.