Yield Performance of Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.) Varieties to Late and Very Late Sowing Dates Under The Extreme North-West Conditions of Punjab

An investigation was conducted on sandy loam soils of P.A.U., Regional Research Station, Gurdaspur for two consecutive rabi seasons of 1997–99 to study the performance of wheat varieties under late sown conditions. Very late sowing of wheat in the first week of January significantly reduced the yield attributes except number of grains/earhead, in both the years over its late sowing in mid December. As a result of this, the mean grain yield decreased to the extent of 21 kg/ha/day in case of 5 January sowing as compared to 15 December sowing of wheat (38.0 q/ha). Varieties also differed significantly for yield attributes, grain and straw yields during both the years. PBW 373 with a mean grain yield of 40.8 q/ha out-yielded all the other varieties by a significant margin. The mean grain yield of PBW 435 (38.5 q/ha) though lower than PBW 373 was, significantly higher than the rest of the varieties (Raj 3765, HD 2338 and UP 2425). Thus higher wheat grain yield can be obtained even under late sown conditions by sowing PBW 373 during 15 December to 5 January.