Effect of restricted irrigation levels on yield attributes and yield of various varieties of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of irrigation levels on performance of timely sown wheat varieties at Crop Research Station Masodha, Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology Kumarganj, Ayodhya 224229 (U.P.) during Rabi 2016-17. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. The treatment consisted of three irrigation levels (I1- no irrigation, I2- one irrigation at CRI, I3- two irrigations, first at CRI and second at boot leaf stage) in main plots and six varieties viz. HI 1612, HD 2888, C 306, K8027, HD 3171 and K 1317in sub plots. Maximum number of effective tillers (287 m-2), length of ear (8.95 cm), number of grains ear-1 (41.93), grain weight ear-1 (1.43 g), test weight (39.29 g), grain yield (33.18 q ha-1), straw yield (47.53 q ha-1), and biomass yield (80.71 q ha-1) were recorded with variety K 1317 which was at par with HI1612 and significantly superior over rest of the varieties. Regarding irrigation levels, maximum number of effective tillers (314.56 m-2), length of ear (8.97 cm), number of grains ear-1 (44.16), grain weight ear-1 (1.36 g), test weight (38.24 g), grain yield (33.45 q ha-1), straw yield (47.78 q ha-1) and biomass yield (81.23 q ha-1) were recorded with two irrigations (first at CRI and second at Boot leaf stage) which was significantly superior than rest of the irrigation levels.