Abstract
This experiment was carried out during the growing season of 2004 – 2005 at Horticulture field researches, Agriculture and Forestry College, Mosul University to evaluate five faba bean cultivars for water stress and supplementary irrigations by withholding complementary watering at either vegetative (RWW), flowering (WRW), pod developments and seed fillings (WWR) stage, whereas the check and other treatments were watered whenever 25% soil AWC is depleted to a depth of 25 cm. The results revealed that Pod developments and seed fillings was the most drought susceptible stage where supplementary irrigation should be applied to improve yield and yield quality. However, other stages were less sensitive, particularly the early vegetative stage. The five cultivars were categorized in the following order according to their performance at the most drought susceptible stage: Local Syrian > Aquadulce > Towaytha > Babylon > Taka357. Subsequently, forecasting depending up on cultivar seeds germinations under sub-optimal conditions could not be used as indicator for the approval of drought resistance cultivars. Finally, results confirmed the Taka357 was the most drought susceptible during all stages particularly in seed filling stage.
