Performance of wheat variety Shalimar Wheat-2 under rainfed conditions of temperate Kashmir as influenced by sowing dates and nitrogen levels

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out during Rabi 2015 and 2016 at experimental farm of RRS&FoA, SKUAST-K, Wadura, to study the effect of sowing dates and nitrogen levels on wheat variety Shalimar wheat-2 under rainfed conditions of Kashmir. Experiment was conducted in split plot design and treatments included three sowing dates (D1-15th October, D2-30th October and D3-15th November) in main plots and four nitrogen levels (N0-0 kg N ha-1, N1-50 N ha-1, N2- 100 Kg N ha-1 and N3-150 Kg N ha-1) in sub-plots and was replicated four times. The pooled results of two years revealed that grain yield decreased by 10.30 % from D1 to D2, 7.84 % from D2 to D3 and 17.30 % from D1 to D3. Recorded wheat growth attributes like plant height (95.11 cm), dry matter accumulation (113.3 q ha-1), tillers m-2 (416.5), leaf area index (3.60) and yield attributes like effective tillers (280.30), grains spike-1 (40.39) and spike weight (2.58 g) were significantly higher with 15th October sowing than 30th October and D3-15th November of sowing. Increasing N levels results in increase in growth, yield attributes and yield, and highest valves were recorded with application of 150 kg N ha-1 (N3) however, remained statistically at par with 100 kg N ha-1 (N2). The study finally concluded that delay in sowing reduces the grain yield, while as irrespective of sowing dates, application of 100 Kg N ha-1 to crop resulted in higher growth, yield attributes and yield of wheat as compared to other nitrogen levels, further increase in N application beyond 100 Kg N ha-1 showed non-significant increase. Doi.org/10.25174/2582-2675/2020/100138