Kin and Non-Kin Connected Plants Benefit More Than Disconnected Kin and Non-Kin Plants under Nutrient-Competitive Environments

In the natural environment, plants grow and interact with both conspecific and heterospecific neighbours under different environmental conditions. In this study, we tested whether Chenopodium quinoa Willd genotypes differ in growth performance when grown with kin and non-kin under nutrient limitation in pot partitioning treatments. Biomass accumulation, allocation, organ efficiency, and specific leaf area were measured at the end of the experiment. Response variables were differentially impacted by kinship, fertility, and barrier. Total dry mass, shoot dry mass, and root and stem allocation were greater for plants grown with kin in connected pots than with non-kin in connected pots across the nutrient treatments. Kin connected and disconnected plants had a greater specific root length, specific stem length, and average leaf mass than non-kin connected and disconnected plants. Non-kin connected and disconnected plants had greater LAR and SLA than kin connected and disconnected plants under low- and high-nutrient treatments. Plants always grew better in the presence of their kin than non-kin. These results conclude that quinoa plant production benefits from planting closely related individuals under both high- and low-nutrient conditions.