Effect of different dates of sowing, varieties and their interactions on grain yield and yield components (Vigna radiate L.) in rainfed situation under southern transitional Zone of Karnataka

A field experiment was conducted at Agronomy Field unit, College of Agriculture, Shivamogga during kharif 2015-2016 and 2016-17 on sandy loamy soils to evaluate performance of promising Greengram varieties (Vigna radiate (L.) Wilczek) as influenced by different dates of sowing under rain fed situation in Southern Transitional Zone of Karnataka. Among three different varieties KKM-3 gave significantly higher grain yield (806.41 kg ha-1) and haulm yield (3206.14 kg ha-1) than PDM 84-178 (675.71 kg ha-1 and 2698.55 kg ha-1, respectively) and SBM-1 (610.81 kg ha-1 and 2462.74 kg ha-1, respectively) (Table 1). Variety KKM-3 showed per cent increase in grain and straw yield over variety PDM 84-178 (16.20% and 15.83%, respectively) and SBM-1 (24.25% and 23.18%, respectively). Among different dates of sowing 15th July recorded significantly higher grain and straw yield (1252.86 kg ha-1 and 4912.04 kg ha-1, respectively) followed by sowing KKM-3 on 30th of July (878.82 kg ha-1 and 3344.05 kg ha-1, respectively) and it was found on par with PDM 84-178 sown on 15th of July (869.92 kg ha-1and 3405.49 kg ha-1, respectively) compared to variety SBM-1 on 15th July (774.98 kg ha-1 and 3033.19 kg ha-1, respectively) Among the interactions significant difference was noticed between date of sowing and variety with respect to yield components, sowing of variety KKM-3 sown on July 15th recorded significantly higher number of clusters plant-1, numbers of pods plant, numbers of seeds per pod (13.59, 53.03 and 11.10, respectively) compared to late sowing variety PDM 84-178 during August 30th (6.96, 31.31 and 8.56, respectively) and late sowing variety SBM-1 on August 30th (4.75, 17.57 and 8.03, respectively).