Standardization of date of sowing and number of cuttings in seed production of Palak cv. All Green under Varanasi condition

Abstract

Palak is a leafy green vegetable and grown almost throughout the year for leafy vegetable purpose. Cutting palak is a common practice to realize the income from the crop by the farmers. So, there is need to standardize seed production method with proper data of sowing along with number of cutting to produce the quality seed with additional income. Considering above points, an experiment was conducted under AICRP (VC) seed production trial during 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17. Palak cv. All Green seeds were sown with three different dates (1 st week of October, 3rd week of October and 1st week of November) and seed production were carried out with no cutting, one cutting, two cuttings and three cuttings. The results reveal that sowing in 3rd week of October recorded significantly highest green leaf yield (123.1q/ha), seed yield (14.5q/ha), 100 seed weight (1.0g), seed germination per cent (75%) and vigour index I (1143) and II (1.173) and highest BC ratio of 1.72. Among the cutting treatments, one cutting gave on par seed yield with no cutting (15.66 q/ha and 16.17 q/ha respectively). One cutting also recorded significantly highest germination per cent (76%), vigour index I (1186) and vigour index II (1.25) and BC ratio of 1.91. Therefore, sowing in the month of October (3rd week) with one cutting considered as the best treatment and recommended for palak seed production under Varanasi condition.