English

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at College of Horticulture, Venkataramannagudem, West Godavari (Dist.), Andhra Pradesh, India; during the period from October, 2010 to January, 2011 to study the effect of sowing dates and spacing on growth and yield of radish. The seeds sown on four different dates viz., 1 st October, 15 th October, 1 st November and 15 th November at different plant spacings of 45 × 10 cm, 45 × 20 cm and 45 × 30 cm. All the growth parameters like days to germination, germination percentage, plant height, number of leaves, leaf area, root-shoot ratio and plant weight were found maximum with 1 st October sowing. All parameters showed a decreasing trend as sowing date was delayed. In the present experiment, October 1 st sowing gave highest yields of (11.31 t/ha) compared to the lowest yields of (3.67 t/ha) by 15 th November sowing. Regarding the plant spacing, the closer spacing (45 × 10 cm) resulted in maximum plant height, whereas all other vegetative parameters like number of leaves, leaf area, root-shoot ratio and plant weight were found maximum with wider spacing (45 × 30 cm). Decreasing plant density significantly reduced the total yield (5.66 t/ha). Interaction effects of sowing dates and spacing showed that early sowing on 1 st October with the closer spacing of 45 × 10 cm performed well in respect of yield. Except plant height, all the growth parameters were better with early sowing on 1 st October with a plant spacing of 45 × 30 cm.