Effect of season and sowing dates on growth and development traits of soybean

Abstract

The present investigation was undertaken for analyzing the effect of different season and sowing dates on growth and development traits of soybean. Soybean was sown in three season viz. Kharif, Rabi and summer. The four sowing dates in each season were used as main treatments whereas varieties Phule Agrani (V1), JS-335 (V2) and KS-103 (V3) were used as sub treatments. The present investigation was carried out at Post Graduate Institute, Department of Agricultural Botany, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, Dist. Ahmednagar (M.S.) during 2015-2016. In the experiment, observations viz. days to 1st flower bud, days to 1st flower, days to 50% flowering, days to 1st pod set, days to pod maturity and days to maturity were recorded. Results revealed that all the characters were significantly affected by sowing dates, varieties and their interaction effect in Kharif, Rabi and summer season. The lowest days required for maturity in summer were recorded in the crop sown on 15th February (84 days) followed by 1st October in Rabi season (84 days) and July 15th in Kharif season (100 days). Variety JS-335 (V2) required lowest days to maturity in Kharif and summer season whereas Variety KS-103 took less days to maturity in Rabi season, irrespective of sowing dates.