Influence of Date of Sowing on Growth and Yield Performance of Field Pea (Pisum sativum L.) Genotypes

An experiment was carried out at the Agronomy Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during October 2014 to March 2015 to study the growth and yield performance of field pea varieties as influenced by date of sowing. The experiment comprised of two factors namely, date of sowing and variety. Date of sowing comprised of 29 October, 13 November and 28 November and the variety comprised of BARI motor-1, BADC motor-1, Natore local and Narail local. The experiment was laid out in a split plot design with three replications. The results indicate that all the growth characters were varied significantly at different days after. Those growth characters except leaf area index were highest for the crop sown on 28 November. The growth characters were highest in variety Natore local and lowest in Narail local except dry matter it was lowest in BADC motor-1. The interaction effect of 28 November sowing, Natore local was highest for all of the growth parameters except leaf area index it was highest on 13 November sowing and the interaction on 29 October sowing BARI motor-1 gave the lowest value. Most of the yield contributing parameters significantly affected by sowing date. The highest seed yield (827.7 kg ha-1) and other yield contributing characters were found on early sowing (13 November) and the lowest seed yield (534 kg ha-1) and other yield contributing characters was at 28 November sowing. Variety had significant effect on yield and yield contributing parameters. The highest seed yield (1032.2 kg ha-1) and Stover yield (3221.35 kg ha-1) was obtained from Natore local while Narail local gave lowest (469.1 kg ha-1) seed yield and lowest Stover yield. The interaction of 13 November with Natore local gave the highest seed yield (1319.3 kg ha-1) and lowest seed yield was produced by Narail local (330.35 kg ha-1) by late sowing (28 November). It can be concluded that, vegetative growth were highest at 28 November sowing and yield components gave highest value on 13 November sowing. Highest yield was produced by Natore local at 13 November sowing but yield was reduced drastically when the crop sown on 28 November. So, it is clear that the optimum date of sowing for field pea is at 13 November.