EFFECT OF SOWING DATES ON PHENOLOGY, GROWTH AND YIELD OF THREE WHEAT (Triticum aestivum L.) VARIETIES

Abstract

The present investigation entitled “Effect of sowing dates on phenology, growth and yield of three wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) varieties” was conducted during rabi season of 2016-17 in Wheat Research Centre, Dinajpur to evaluate the performance of newly released varieties under different high temperature both in stress in early and late sown conditions, to find out the heat tolerant and heat sensitive variety and to find out the optimum sowing time for a specific variety. The treatments consisted of three sowing dates viz., early sowing (1st November), optimum sowing (15th November) and late sowing (30th December), and three recently released wheat varieties namely Shatabdi, BARI Gom 27 and BARI Gom 28. The experiment was laid out in split-plot design with three replications. Three sowing dates were arranged in main plots and three wheat varieties were in sub-plots. Phenology data on days to emergence, days to booting, days to heading and days to physiological maturity; growth data on plants m-2, tillers m-2, and yield and yield components‟ data on spikes m-2, plant height at harvest, spike length, spikelets spike-1, grains spike-1, 1000-grain weight, harvest index, biomass yield at harvest and grain yield were recorded during experimentation. For drawing valid conclusions, all recorded data were analyzed with standard statistical method. Except few, most of the parameters were significantly influenced by sowing dates and varieties. Among the three sowing dates, significantly the highest grain yield (4666.95 kg ha-1) was obtained from November 15th sowing and the lowest (2403.27 kg ha-1) was from December 30th sowing. Among the varieties, BARI Gom 28 was found significantly superior to all other varieties with respect to spikelets spike-1, grains spike-1, 1000-grain weight, harvest index, biomass and grain yield. Considering on grain yield, the maximum grain yield (3565.15 kg ha-1) was obtained from BARI Gom 28 and the lowest was in BARI Gom 27 (3059.81kg ha-1). The combine effect between sowing dates and variety were influenced significantly in respect of yield and yield attributes except spike length. Among three varieties BARI Gom 28 produced significantly the highest grain yield (4946.11kg ha-1) sowing in 15th November followed by Shatabdi (4809.73kg ha-1) at the same sowing date and the lowest grain yield (3059.81kg ha-1) was recorded from BARI Gom 27 on 30th December sowing. Therefore, it can be concluded that BARI Gom 28 is the best variety, followed by Shatabdi and BARI Gom 27 for producing higher grain yield and November 15th is the best time for sowing wheat, whereas December 30th is the worst sowing time that negatively effect on grain yield of wheat.