Phenology and productive performance of pigeon pea as influenced by date of sowing

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to study the physiological basis of variation in productivity of pigeon pea in relation to date of sowing at College of Agriculture, Raichur during kharif 2013-14. Significantly higher mean seed yield was recorded with early sown crop 10th July (2052.40 kg ha-1) over the late sown crop 1st (1290.01 kg ha-1) and 20th August (894.70 kg ha-1) and was mainly attributed more days to attain phenological stages viz., First branching (23.86 days), flower bud initiation (84.68 days), flower initiation (112.11 days), pod initiation (131.54 days), 50 per cent podding (150.88 days) and physiological maturity (165.87 days) coupled with longer duration of phenological phases viz;, first branching to flower bud initiation (61.89 days), flower bud initiation to flower bud initiation (28.56 days), flower initiation to pod initiation (19.59 days), pod initiation to 50 percent podding stage (19.43 days) and 50 per cent podding to physiological maturity (17.32 days). Among the genotypes studied, Cv. Asha recorded significantly higher seed yield (2117.33 kg ha-1) and the increased yield might be due to longer phenological phases coupled with more days to attain phenological stages as compare to all other genotypes