ABSTRACT

A field experiment was conducted at College of Agriculture, Vijayapura, during Kharif 2023. The experiment was laid out in a Factorial Randomized Complete Block Design with twelve treatment combinations, assigning four dates of sowing viz., IΙ fortnight of July, Ι fortnight of August, ΙI fortnight of August and Ι fortnight of September as first factor and three genotypes viz., GRG-152, GRG-811 and TS-3R as second factor with three replications.
The results revealed that the seed yield progressively decreased with a delay in sowing. A significantly higher seed yield was recorded under II fortnight of July (1374 kg ha-1), which was statistically on par with I fortnight of August (1325 kg ha-1). Among the genotypes, TS-3R recorded a significantly higher seed yield than other genotypes. The increase in the yield attributed to better growth and yield attributes coupled with better rainfall, more accumulated heat units (GDD-3631.90 °C day, HTU-13392.82 °C day hrs-1), better light interception and higher photosynthetic activities. Accumulated heat units showed a positive correlation with seed yield and total dry matter production. The interaction of pigeonpea genotype TS-3R sown during II fortnight of July recorded higher seed yield (1401 kg ha-1) with net returns of 69971 Rs. ha-1, which was on par with the interaction of GRG-152 sown during II fortnight of July (1386 kg ha-1 and 68837 Rs. ha-1, respectively). The study concludes that sowing of pigeonpea genotypes GRG-152 and GRG-811 is better up to I fortnight of August, for realizing maximum productivity and profitability in the northern dry zone of Karnataka under delayed conditions.