Agro Meteorological Indices Influenced by Varying Sowing Environment and Varieties of Wheat in Western Maharashtra Plain Zone

Abstract

An agro-meteorological investigation was undertaken during rabi, 2016 and 2017 at Farm, Department of Agricultural Meteorology, College of Agriculture, Pune, Maharashtra State (India). The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. The treatment comprised of four varieties viz. V1: NIAW-301 (Trymbak ) V2: NIAW-917 (Tapovan), V3: NIAW-1415 (Netravati) and V4:NIAW-1994 (Phule Samadhan) as main plot and four sowing windows viz., S1: 43rd MW (22-28 October), S2: 45th MW (5-11November), S3: 47th MW (19-25 November) and S4: 49th MW (3-9 December) as sub plot treatments. The agrometeorological indices indicated more values for 45th MW (5-11November) and 47th MW (19-25 November) sown wheat crops and lowest values in late sown crop. Days to crown root stage, tillering stage, ear emergence stage, 50% flowering stage, milking stage, dough stage and physiology maturity matched closely with observed values for all sowing environments. It revealed that the grain yields were significantly higher in NIAW-1994 (51.07 and 48.52 qha-1) and significantly superior to the rest of the wheat varieties. This was followed by NIAW-917(45.72 and 43.43 q ha-1), NIAW-301(43.57 and 41.27 q ha-1). The variety NIAW-1415 recorded significantly lower grain yield (40.89 and 38.84 qha-1) during 2016 and 2017, respectively. The grain yield was maximum at 47th MW sowing window (50.40 and 47.88 qha-1), the grain yield of 45th MW (47.94 and 45.42 qha-1) were at par with 47th MW sowing window. This was followed by 43rd MW sowing window (43.88 and 41.68 q ha-1), 49th MW sowing window (39.04 and 37.07 q ha-1) during 2016 and 2017, respectively.