Agronomic practices for red lentil in Alberta

Lentil was seldom grown in Alberta prior to 2015 due to lack of demonstrated ability to achieve adequate yields, even though it was potentially well adapted to most agricultural regions within the province. We conducted field trials at five locations for four years to determine potential productivity and optimum seeding rate, N management and imidazolinone herbicide formulation for two imidazolinone-resistant red lentil cultivars across a broad geographic region of Alberta. Over the four years of this study (2012 to 2015), the average yield potential of lentil ranged from 3000 to 3700 kg ha-1 at five locations. Maximum yield was consistently obtained when plant density exceeded 90 plants m-2. Lentil yield was not influenced by rhizobia inoculation, N fertilizer rate or their interaction. Application of imidazolinone-based herbicide did not impact yield or nodulation of the lentil cultivars used in this study. High productivity of two imidazolinone-resistant red lentil cultivars was attainable over a broad geographic region of Alberta.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author