Effect of sowing dates in groundnut (Arachis hypogea L.) on growth, yield attributing characters and yield

Groundnut (Arachis Hypogea L.) is an annual legume which is also known as earthnut, monkey nut, peanut and goober nut. It is the 13 th most important food crop and 4 th most important oilseed crop of the World. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with five sowing dates viz., S 1 -22 nd June, S 2 -29 th June, S 3 -6 th July, S 4 -13 th July and S 5 -20 th July and four replications. The soil of the experimental plot was leveled and medium deep with good drainage and was suitable for growth of the groundnut crop. The crop growth observations viz., plant height, number of branches, number of leaves and leaf area plant -1 were recorded periodically at an interval of 15 days i.e., 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105 DAS and at harvest. The observations on days to 50 per cent flowering, days to pod initiation, days to 50 per cent pod maturity were recorded at the respective time. The observations on days to harvesting, number of mature pods plant -1 , wet and dry pod weight plot -1 and ha -1 were recorded at the time of harvest and after the harvest of the crop. The results indicated that the treatment sowing date viz., 6 th July significantly influenced various growth contributing characters like plant height (39.99 cm), number of branches plant -1 (8.13), number of branches (8.13), leaf area (dm 2 ) plant - 1 (28.97), days to 50 per cent flowering (28.94), days to pod initiation (59.00), as well as yield contributing characters and yield viz., days to 50 per cent maturity (91.25), days to harvesting (109), number of mature pods plant -1 (23.88), green pod weight kg plot -1 (4.23), green pod weight q ha -1 (36.83) and the dry pod weight kg plot -1 (3.15), dry pod weight qha -1 (32.83) and was found significantly superior over all the sowing date treatments viz., S 5 , S 4 , S 2 and S 1 .