Vol. 11, Issue 7 (2022)

Author(s):
PS Patra, B Kanjilal, AS Ahmad, R Saha, A Hoque, H Meena, A Sarkar and A Choudhury

Abstract:
Rabi maize is now gaining popularity in the northern part of West Bengal due to its high yield potentiality and economic sustainability. Present investigation was conducted during 2019-20 and 2020-21 at the instructional farm of Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India to evaluate the performance of rabi maize under different sowing dates. The experiment was arranged out in randomized block design with three replications having 7 different dates of sowing viz. D₁=1st November, D₂=8^th November, D₃=15^th November, D₄=22^nd November, D₅=29^th November, D₆=6^th December and D₇=13^th December and replicated thrice. Maize variety DKC 9081 was used in the trial and sown with a spacing of 60 X 30 cm. Results revealed that 1^st November sown (D₁) crop recorded highest germination (93.29%) which was closely followed by 8^th November sown (D₂) crop and thereafter there was a declining trend of germination irrespective of sowing dates and year of experimentation. On an average variety took 153 to 159.50 days to mature. Maturity was delayed by 1 to 6 days with the dates of sowing. 8^th November sown (D₁) crop mature 6.5 days earlier as compared to 13^th December sown crop (D₇). Dates of sowing had pronounced effect on yield attributes of maize and recorded highest values of cob length (22.12 & 21.73 cm), cob diameter (19.56 & 18.57 cm), no. of rows cob^-1 (17.07 & 17.43), number of grains row^-1 (42.93 & 42.60) and seed index (40.08 & 44.60 g) whenever sown in 15^th of November (D₃), which ultimately leads to higher grain (10.59 &10.84 t ha^-1) of maize during both the years of investigation followed by D₅, D₄ and D₆. Highest B: C ratio of 1.88 and 2.09 was realized with 15^th November sown maize.