Crop Phenology, Growth Indices and Yield of Wheat as Influenced by Different Establishment and Moisture Conservation Practices under Limited Irrigated Conditions

Abstract

To find out the best crop establishment method, and to evaluate the effect of moisture conservation practices on phenology, growth indices and grain yield of wheat under limited irrigated conditions a field experiment was conducted at the Research Farm of Wheat and Barley Section, Department of Genetic and Plant Breeding, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar during the Rabi seasons of 2019-20 and 2020-21. CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar is situated 29°10' N latitude and 75° 46' E longitude with an elevation of 215.2 meters above mean sea level in the semi-arid and sub-tropical zone. The experiment consisted of twenty four treatment combinations comprising three establishment methods i.e. Conventional Tillage (CT), Zero Tillage (ZT) and Bed Planting (BP) as main plot and two irrigation levels i.e. I1-one irrigation applied at crown root initiation stage (I1) and I2-two irrigation applied at CRI and booting stagess as sub-main plot treatments and four moisture conservation practices i.e. M0-no mulch, M1-mulch (pearl millet straw @ 4 tonnes ha-1), M2- antitranspirant (kaolin @ 6% w/v) and M3- mulch (pearl millet straw @ 4 tonnes ha-1) + antitranspirant (kaolin @ 6% w/v) as sub-plots treatments. The experiment was conducted in split split-plot design with three replications. The results revealed that days taken to booting, heading and physiological maturity did not influence significantly by crop establishment methods. Crop took more days to attain booting (79.64 and 77.89), heading (90.33 and 88.08) and physiological maturity (138.86 and 137.42) stages when two irrigations were applied to the crop as compared to one irrigation during 2019-20 and 2020-21, respectively. Among moisture conservation practices, treatment M3 took significantly higher numbers of days for booting (80.24 and 79.06), heading (91.00 and 88.39) and physiological maturity (140.39 and 138.72) stages as compared to M0 but statically at par with M1 and M2. The growth indices i.e. crop growth rate and relative growth rate are significantly higher in BP, two irrigation levels and M3 during 2019-20 and 2020-21, respectively. The maximum grain yield of wheat was recorded when crop was sown by bed planting method of crop establishment (4,830 and 4,393 kg ha-1) as compared to ZT and CT during both the years. The grain yield was significantly higher with two irrigations levels (4,877 and 4,457 kg ha-1) as compared to one irrigation during both the years. Treatment M3 (4,837 and 4,415 kg ha-1) produced significantly higher grain yield as compared to other treatments during 2019-20 and 2020-21, respectively.