Relationship between the total dry weight and the vegetative characters and the nodulation of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea   L.) plants

The objective of this experiment was to determine how total dry weight (roots, stem and leaves) influence on plant and nodulation characters of groundnut plants according to the previous crop sowed in the soil. The stepwise regression analysis was carried out from data of a two-factor experiment in a randomized complete block design with three replications, using as treament three groundnut cultivars and four soil types previously cultivated with cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.), corn (Zea mays L.), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.)or fallow. Database was built with nine cases. The characters evaluated were: total dry weight (TW); number of leaves/plant (LP); plant height (PH); number of branches/plant (BP); stem diameter (SD); root length (RL); root diameter (RD); number of nodules/plant (NP) and nodule dry weight (NW). The better fitted equations according to the stepwise regression analysis were: (Vea tabla 1) It could be concluded that the nodulation characters as NP and NW contribute to the expression of the groundnut plant weight when the soil has been cultivated previously with another leguminous (cowpea) or the soil has not been cultivated before. This fact, it is being usually settled of typical native leguminous of tropical savanna soils, which can contained appreciable amounts of native rizobia and could form nodules in these leguminous species. These characters did not influence on plant weight when the previous crop sowed (cotton and corn) was not a legume