Physiology of seed yield in soybean: Growth and dry matter production

Growth rate of mungbean was very slow during the vegetative phase in all the four genotypes. A relatively smaller portion of total dry matter (TDM) was produced before flower initiation and the bulk of it after anthesis. The maximum crop growth rate (CGR) was observed due to maximum leaf area (LA) development during the pod filling stage in all the genotypes. LA and CGR contributed to the superior TDM production. It appeared that a high yielding mungbean genotype should possess larger LA, high TDM production ability, superior CGR at all the growth stages, high relative growth rate and net assimilation rate at the vegetative stage as superior yield components.