Indexing

Effect of Sowing Date and Irrigation on Leaf Area Index and Biomass of Mustard Cultivars

Author: Krishna Kumar Sudhansu, Deb Kumar Das, Joydeep Mukherjee, Vinay Kumar Sehgal and Kalikinkar Bandyopadhyay

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Abstract

Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L.) is a long day plant, which requires fairly cool climatic condition during growth and development. A field experiment was conducted during the rabi season of 2020-21 at IARI farm with three mustard cultivars, viz., Pusa Vijay, Pusa Mustard-21 and Pusa Bold in Split plot design to study the influence of date of sowing and irrigation levels on Leaf Area Index (LAI) and biomass accumulation of mustard cultivars. Proper handling of plant canopy analyser for LAI reading and proper care and management for biomass sampling and drying were some of the challenges needed to account during the experiment. Timely sown crop has higher crop growth rate mainly due to high leaf area index which accumulated dry matter at a faster rate per unit leaf area per unit time and subsequently it decreased with delay in sowing. At the early vegetative phase, total dry matter (TDM) increased slowly but with the advancement of growth period there was rapid increase of TDM. LAI in

Keywords

Indian Mustard, LAI, TDM, Date of sowing, Pusa Bold

Conclusion

The time of sowing and different level of irrigation affect the LAI and Biomass accumulation of the crop. LAI increased slowly, then rapidly from the rosette stage onwards, attaining peak during the pod formation stage and then sharply decline during the seed filling stage. The peak value of leaf area index (LAI) reduced significantly due to delay in sowings. Biomass accumulation also reduced significantly due to delay in sowings and when one irrigation was withdrawn at the seed filling stage, a significant reduction in final biomass was also found due to different irrigation levels.

References

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How to cite this article

Sudhansu, K.K., Das, D. K., Mukherjee, J., Sehgal, V.K. and Bandyopadhyay, K. (2021). Effect of Sowing Date and Irrigation on Leaf Area Index and Biomass of Mustard Cultivars. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 13(3a): 544-549.