Effect of planting time and plant growth habits on phenological, physiological traits and associated with seed yield in African sarson (Brassica carinata)

Abstract

An experiment was conducted during two consecutive years to study the effect of planting times (15 October, 5 November and 25 November) and cultivars differing for growth habits (BJC-13-1, BJC-13-2, BJC-13-3, BJC-13-4) newly developed determinate type and (PC-5 indeterminate variety) on phenology and physiological traits of African sarson (Brassica carinata A. Braun). The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications keeping planting times in main plot and genotypes in sub-plots. Planting time had a significant influence on both phenology and physiological traits of African sarson. The early sown crop took less number of days (66) for flowering while late sown crop took more number of days (79). There was drastic reduction in flowering period (20.8days), siliquing duration (23.3days) and reproductive phase(27.2days). Early planted (15 October) cultivars intercepted more PAR, higher LAI and SPAD-chlorophyll values resulting in higher yield. The interactive effects of planting dates and the cultivars were significant (p < 0.05) for most of the features, which showed variable trends for the changes in the cultivars in response to planting dates. In all the cultivars, there was considerable deterioration in most of the studied traits due to delayed planting. Seed yield had positive association with siliquae duration (0.436), reproductive phase (0.426), SPAD (0.540*) and LAI (0.701**) with first planting (15 October) whereas with late planting (5 November) correlation existed between seed yield and LAI (0.073) and PAR interception (0.086) while with only flowering duration (0.772**) with 25 November sowing.