Effects of sowing dates on plant growth and seed yield of ajmer green coriander-1 in winter season

Abstract

Present investigation was carried out to see the effect of different sowing dates on plant growth and seed yield of winter season coriander cultivar Ajmer Green Coriander-1 (AGCr-1) at ICAR-National Research Centre on Seed Spices, Ajmer, Rajasthan during 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17. The experiment comprised of five date of sowing including 13th October, 23rd October, 02nd November, 12th November and 22nd November with four replications under randomized block design keeping plot size 2.0m x 3.0 m. Observations with respect to seed germination, plant growth, seed yield in each treatment were recorded. Results revealed that parameters like minimum days to germination initiation (7.33), minimum days to complete germination (10.50), plant height at 60 DAS (26.88 cm), 90 DAS (108.93 cm) and at harvest (128.43 cm) were recorded in the plants grown on 23rd October date of sowing. Similarly, maximum number of primary branches (8.95), secondary branches (30.23), highest first leaf length (25.76 cm), second leaf length (24.32 cm), maximum number of basal leaves plant-1 (16.88), number of umbel plant-1 (42.33), number of umbellate umbel-1 (8.0), seed yield plot-1 ( 1188.33 g) and seed yield (1980.56 kg ha-1) was also recorded with 23rd October date of sowing. All the parameters were highest in the crop sown on 23rd October as compared to lowest seed yields (221.33 g plot-1 and 368.89 kg ha -1) was recorded in the crop sown on 22nd November. The maximum gross return and net return was recorded in the crop sown on 23rd October (` 178250.40, ` 127212.40) followed by 13th October (` 174987.90, ` 123949.90). The trend was observed similar during all the individual years. The maximum B: C ratio was recorded in the crop sown on 23rd October (3.49) followed by 13th October (3.43)