Abstract

Optimum sowing time and a promising variety are of prime importance to harness potential yield of any crop. Pole frenchbean is cultivated as a potential off-season crop in north-western hilly areas where information on these important agronomic aspects is lacking. Keeping this in view, a field experiment was conducted for two consecutive years during June to September 2007 and 2008 by following split plot design with three replications. The 12 treatment combinations comprised of four dates of sowing at weekly interval starting from 1^st June in main plot and three varieties namely Luxmi, SVM-1 and Kentucky Wonder in sub-plots. The early sowing on 1^st June significantly resulted in higher seed yield with 23, 77 and 85% more increase over 8^th June, 15^th June and 22^nd June, respectively in pooled years. Among the varieties, ‘SVM-1’ significantly out performed ‘Luxmi’ and ‘Kentucky Wonder’ for seed yield with a respective increase of 63 and 44% in pooled years and also performed better for pods/plant and straw yield. Interaction effects of sowing dates and varieties on the performance revealed that the seed yield of all the varieties, in general, decreased with each delay in sowing with more drastic reduction after 15^th June. The cultivar ‘SVM-1’ performed significantly better on all four dates of sowings over ‘Luxmi’ and ‘Kentucky Wonder’ for number of pods/plant, seed yield and straw yield over the years. Hence, it can be concluded that early sowing on 1^st June and the cultivar ‘SVM-1’ was the most ideal combination to obtain higher seed yield of pole frenchbean under sub-humid temperate environment.

Key words: Phaseolus vulgaris L., variety, pod, sowing dates, seed yield, straw yield, plant characteristics.