The effect of crop geometry on growth characters narration to yield of hybrid castor

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out during August 2016 to February 2017 at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai, to study the growth parameters and yield of castor hybrid (YRCH 1). The soil of experimental field was sandy clay loam and experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD), comprised of eight treatments were replicated thrice viz., G1 - 150 × 120 cm (5,555 plants ha-1), G2 - 120 × 120 cm (6,944 plants ha-1), G3 - 120 × 90 cm (9,259 plants ha-1), G4 - 120 × 60 cm (13,888 plants ha-1), G5 - 90 × 90 cm (12,345 plants ha-1), G6 - 90 × 60 cm (18,518 plants ha-1), G7 - 90 × 45 cm (24,691 plants ha-1) and G8 - 75 × 75 cm (17,777 plants ha-1). Growth parameters such as number of nodes, node girth and number of branches plant-1 were more under wider spacing of 150 × 120 cm and 120× 120 cm respectively. Plant height and node length were influenced by closer spacing of 75× 75 cm. Days to 50 per cent flowering shohwed that 150 x 120 cm spacing recorded more number of days to flowering as compared narrow crop geometry. Among the different plant geometry, significantly maximum seed and oil yield was realized with spacing of 120 × 120 cm, which provides favorable environment for better growth characters leads to higher seed and oil yield in hybrid castor as compared to closer spacing.