Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during rabi 2011-2012 at Forage Management and Research Centre, National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal to study the “Effect of date of sowing and crop geometry on seed yield and quality of forage mustard (var. Chinese cabbage)”. The soil texture of the experimental site was clay loam with available nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium were 212, 20 and 256 kg/ha, respectively. There were 24 treatment combinations consisting of four dates of sowing (1^st October, 16^th October, 31^st October and 15^th November) and six crop geometry (60×15, 45×15, 45×20, 45×25, 30×20 and 30×25 cm) and the experiment was laid out in split plot design with four replications. From the result, sowing during 1^st October recorded significantly higher crop yield attributing characters viz. no. of primary, secondary and tertiary branches, number and weight of siliquae /plant and ultimately seed yield (2013 kg/ha) with better growth and higher dry matter accumulation in yield components compared to 31^st October and 15^th November. Crop geometry of 30×20 cm recorded significantly higher seed yield (1829 kg/ha) with better utilization of space, nutrients, water and sunshine resulting in higher dry matter translocation to yield components as compared to 60×15, 45×15, 45×20, 45×25 and 30×25 cm crop geometry.

Key word: Crop geometry, date of sowing, forage mustard, seed yield.