The paper presents results on the effect of agronomic factors on the content of chlorophyll, the biometric parameters of plants and quality of fenugreek seeds. It has been shown that potassium fertilization and inoculation of fenugreek seeds had no significant effect on the plant’s performance. The only trait influenced by those factors was the seed weight per plant; under higher doses of potassium fertilization K2.5 and K3.75, its value was about 10% higher, but fell down by 19.3% in treatments with inoculated seeds compared to non-inoculated ones. Soil water deficit caused reduction of plant height by 15.5%, number of pods by 18.3%, number of seeds per pod by 20%, weight of seeds by 28%, weight of the plant’s aerial parts by 18.0%, and harvest index by 13.2%. In response to water deficit, the content of chlorophyll decreased significantly from 57.8 SPAD units at 43 DAS to 52.4 and 54.0 SPAD units in the next phases (51 and 58 DAS), when 40% and 80% of pods attained the final length. Increasing doses of potassium caused a significant increase in the crude protein (by 3.2-5.4%) and potassium content (by 7-8%) in seeds of fenugreek grown under water deficit. After seed inoculation, an increase in the protein content was found.

20.2.2015