Influence of sowing date on the growth and yield performance of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) varieties

Abstract

A field study was conducted at the Agronomy Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh to investigate the effect of sowing date on the performance of wheat varieties. The experiment, laid out in RCBD with three replications, comprised four sowing dates viz.,15 November, 30 November, 15 December and 30 December, and four varieties of wheat viz. BARI Gom 25, BARI Gom 26, BARI Gom 27 and Shatabdi. The results suggested that the highest plant population m^-2 (58.17) and the highest plant height (89.59 cm) were obtained in 15 November sowing. BARI Gom 25 produced the highest plant population m^-2 (50.33) and the highest plant height (86.32) while the same trend was observed in the interaction of BARI Gom 25×15 November sowing. The lowest performance of these two parameters was observed in the interaction of Shatabdi × 30 December sowing. The highest grain yield (2.18 ha^-1) was found in the interaction of BARI Gom 25 × 15 November sowing as contributed by its highest number of effective tillers hill^-1 (4.73), the highest number of spikelets spike^-1 (17.77), the highest number of grains spike^-1(37.89) and the highest 1000-grain weight (29.99g). The individual effect of the BARI Gom 25 and 15 November sowing on those parameters was also observed as the highest. The lowest grain yield (1.5 t ha^-1) was found in the interaction of Shatabdi × 30 December sowing because of the poor performance of the yield components of this treatment combination. The variety BARI Gom 25 and BARI Gom 26 both gave better yield when sown on 15 November. Therefore, BARI Gom 25 and BARI Gom 26 should be sown on 15 November rather than late sowing to obtain better performance and grain yield of wheat.