Rachita Mishra, Subham Acharya and Md Riton Chowdhury
Abstract
An experiment was conducted at Agricultural Research Station, Binjhagiri, Chhatabar, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences (IAS), Siksha O Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Bhubaneswar, Odisha during Rabi 2023-24 entitled âAnalyzing the thermal indices of mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Czern and Coss.] under varying sowing schedules and spatial arrangement following BBCH scaleâ to identify the suitable sowing time uring rabi season by computing the thermal indices and its impact on yield of mustard. The experiment was comprised of four different dates of sowing i.e., D1 (10th November), D2 (24th November), D3 (8th December) & D4 (22nd December) and three different crop geometry i.e., S1 (30 cm x 15 cm), S2 (45 cm x 15 cm) & S3 (30 cm x 30 cm). The agro-meteorological indices shows that D1(45th SMW) accumulated more GDD, HTU, PTU, HUE and PTI i.e., 1832.0 0C days,13225.2 0C days hours, 20171.5 0C days hours, 0.60 kg ha-1 oC-1 days and 20.2 0C days days-1 respectively at P9 (senescence) stage according to BBCH scale. The highest seed yield (1087.0kg ha-1) of mustard was noted under D1 i.e., 10th November (45th SMW) followed by under D2 (823.0kg ha-1) i.e., 24th November. Among different crop geometry, the yield attributing characters were significantly higher in S3 (30 cm x 30 cm) followed by S1 (30 cm x15 cm), however the highest seed yield (858.0 kg ha-1) of mustard was found under narrow spacing of 30 cm x 15 cm. Highest seed yield (1151kg ha-1) was obtained in the treatment combination of D1S1 and it is statistically similar with D1S3 having seed yield of 1145.33 kg ha-1, S3 (30 cm à 30 cm) proved to be more remunerative due to its lower input requirements (particularly seed), making it a more cost-effective option, despite the slightly lower seed yield than S1. Throughout the study it has been concluded that the combination of sowing during 1st fortnight of November with a wider spacing of mustard under this agro-climatic conditions gives higher productivity in the state of Odisha.