EFFECT OF SINGLE IRRIGATION AND SOWING DATE ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF WHEAT

Abstract

The experiment was conducted during the period from November 2012 to March 2013 in the experimental field of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka to find out the effect of single irrigation and sowing date on growth and yield of wheat. The experiment comprised two factors; Factors A: Irrigation (4 levels): I0: No irrigation i.e. control; I1: Irrigation at 20 DAS (Crown root initiation stage); I2: Irrigation at 55 DAS (Flowering stage) and I3: Irrigation at 75 DAS (Grain filling stage); Factor B: Sowing date (3 levels at 10 days interval): S1: Sowing at 19 November, 2012; S2: Sowing at 29 November, 2012 and S3: Sowing at 09 December, 2012. The experiment was laid out in Split Plot Design with three replications. Irrigation was assigned in the main plot and sowing date was in the sub-plot. It was evident from the results that morpho-physiological and yield contributing characters of wheat were significantly influenced by irrigation, sowing date and their interaction. In respect of the effect of irrigation results revealed that each of the 3 different dated irrigated plots showed better performance than that of the non-irrigated plot in all the parameters studied. Among the 3 different dates of irrigation, irrigation at crown root initiation stage (I1), recorded the highest values in all the parameters studied but it was statistically similar with I2 (irrigation at flowering) and I3 (irrigation at grain filling stage of wheat). Irrigation hastened the maturity period of wheat and as a result maturity of 121.56 days was found for no irrigation (I0) and that of 115.33 days was found for irrigation at 20 DAS (I1) treatment. Out of 3 different sowing dates November 19, 2012 (S1) and November 29, 2012 (S2) sowing was found to record statistically the higher results than that of December sowing (S3). Again between 2 sowings in November, November 19 sowing (S1) showed better performance than that of November 29 sowing (S2). Due to cumulative action of irrigation at crown root initiation stage (I1) and November 19 sowing (S1) the combination effect (I1S1) recorded the highest results in number of tillers hill-1 (5.17), number of spikes hill-1 (4.50), filled grains spike-1 (34.33) and 1000 seed weight (47.09 g) of wheat and that resulted to get ultimately the highest seed yield (3.82 t ha-1), straw yield (5.96 t ha-1) and biological yield (9.78 t ha-1) of the same. Due to poor performance of individual treatment of non-irrigation (I0) and December 9 sowing date (S3) the combination I0S3 recorded statistically the lowest grain yield (2.44 t ha-1), straw yield (4.74 t ha-1) and biological yield (7.38). Harvest index was found 40.16% for I1S1 and 32.94% for I0S3.