Influence of Varieties and Sowing Dates on Growth, Yield Attributes and Yield of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under Delayed Sowing

An experiment was carried out at Agricultural Research station, Adilabad during Rabi-summer 2023-24 on “Influence of varieties and sowing dates on growth, yield attributes and yield of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under delayed sowing”. The experimental design was strip plot with three replications. The treatments comprise five chickpea varieties (two are kabuli and three are desi) viz., NBeG-119, NBeG-810, NBeG-857, JG-14 and JAKI-9218 as horizontal factors and three sowing dates viz., December 1st week, December 3rd week and January 1st week as vertical factors. The results of the experiment indicated that JG-14 took more days to 50% flowering (43.2) and maturity (102.1), resulted in more pods plant-1 (50.8), higher 100 seed weight among desi varieties (25.2 g), greater seed yield (2564 kg ha-1), straw yield (5108 kg ha-1) on par with NBeG-857 (5213 kg ha-1), high harvest index (33.3%). Plant height and dry matter were higher for NBeG-810 (46.1 cm and 4036 kg ha-1 respectively) but was on par with JG-14 (42.5 cm) for plant height. Lower yield attributes and yield were recorded with NBeG-119 except test weight. Across sowing dates December 1st week obtained higher plant height (44.9 cm), dry matter (3817 kg ha-1), days to 50% flowering (44 days) and maturity (101.5 days), number of pods plant-1 (44.4), seed yield (2234 kg ha-1), straw yield (4463 kg ha-1) and harvest index (33.2%) and was on par with December 3rd week. January 1st week recorded low growth and yield parameters but was on par with December 3rd week. Seeds pod-1 was not significant for different varieties and sowing dates. Test weight was non-significant for sowing dates.