EFFECT OF SOWING DATE ON YIELD AND YIELD COMPONENTS OF RAPESEED VARIETIES

Abstract

The study was carried out at the Field Laboratory of Sher-e- Bangla Agricultural University farm, Dhaka during October 2004 to February 2005 to evaluate the effect of sowing date and variety on yield and yield components of rapeseed (Brass/ca campesiris and Brassica napus). The treatments comprised of four sowing dates at 15-days interval on viz. October 20, November 4, November 19 and December 4 and three varieties viz. Improved Tori-7, BARI Sarisha-8 and BARI Sarisha-9. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design. The results showed that BARI Sarisha-8 performed best by producing 52.4 % and 132.9 % higher yield than BARI Sarisha-9 and Improved Tori-7, respectively. This variety (BARI Sarisha-8) also showed higher siliquae planf', seeds siIiqua, siliqua length. 1000 seed weight, shelling percentage, stover yield, biological yield and harvest index. In case of sowing date, grain yield reduced gradually with the advancement of delay in sowing. October 20 sowing gave maximum grain yield (1422 kg ha) and that of lowest (437.2 kg ha S ') was observed in December 4. BARI Sarisha-8 on October 20 sowing produced the significantly highest grain yield (1865 kg hi') and the lowest (130 kg ha") was found in Improved Tori-7 on December 4 sowing. The variety BARI Sarisha-8 and October 20 sowing performed best in respect of grain yield as well as other studied parameters.