Phenological performance of groundnut under various sowing environment and planting density in hyper arid zone of Rajasthan, India

Abstract

An experiment trial was conducted during three consecutive kharif seasons of 2017, 2018 and 2019 at three farmer’s field and Krishi Vigyan Kendra Farm, Bikaner (Rajasthan) to study the optimum time of sowing and planting density of groundnut. The experiment was laid out in split-plot design with four replications, comprising of nine treatments consisting of three date of sowing (15th May, 30th May and 15th June) as main plot treatments and three planting density (1.67 lac, 2.50 lac and 3.33 lac ha-1) as sub-plots. The results showed that significantly higher crop stand and plant height at harvest was observed in 15th June sowing than all other sowing dates, however, plant height remained at par with sowing at 30th May. Groundnut sown on 30th May recorded significantly higher periodic dry matter production, crop growth rate (CGR) and relative growth rate (RGR) as compared to early sowing on 15th May as well as late sowing on 15th June. Crop stand and plant height increased significantly with each increasing level of planting density (1.67 lac, 2.50 lac, and 3.33 lac ha-1) and the maximum was obtained at plant population of 3.33 lac ha-1. It was also observed that groundnut at planting density of 3.33 lac ha-1 remained statistically at par with planting density of 2.50 lac ha-1 and recorded significantly higher periodic dry matter production, crop growth rate and relative growth rate as compared to planting density of 1.67 lac ha-1.