Performance of food barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) varieties under different sowing windows and seeding rates

Abstract

Earlier barley was cultivated for feed and malt purpose. With the development of improved varieties of food barley, its adaptability may be increased. The field experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of barley varieties under different sowing time and seeding rates. The soil of the experimental field was loamy sand with low in N (182 kg/ha), high in P (30.75 kg/ha) and medium in K (172.5 kg/ha) with 7.3 soil pH. The experiment I was laid down in split-plot design with two dates of sowing i.e. 20th November and 20th December and five varieties i.e. PL 891, NDB 943, DWRB 123, DWRUB 52 and PL 807. Experiment II was conducted with two food barley varieties (PL 891, NDB 943) with five seeding rates viz. 87.5, 100.0, 112.5, 125 & 137.5 kg ha−1 along with PL 807 and DWRUB 52 at seed rate of 87.5kg ha−1 in RCBD. The 20th November sowing recorded higher grain yield, yield attributes and heat use efficiency and heliothermal use efficiency. The hulless food barley variety PL 891 gave a significantly higher grain yield (31.28 q ha−1) than NDB 943 when sown on 20th November, but less than feed and malt barley varieties. The new food barley variety PL 891 gave a significantly higher grain yield with seed rate 125 kg ha−1, whereas in malt barley varieties, DWRB 123 (45.93 q ha−1) gave the highest yield sown at recommended seed rate. The variety DWRB 123 recorded the highest heat use efficiency and heliothermal use efficiency.