Effect of sowing date and crop spacing on growth, yield attributes and quality of sesame

Abstract

Sesame is one of the oldest and most important oil seed crop. This study was carried out to determine the effects of different sowing dates and inter-and intra-row spacings on the growth and yield components on sesame. A Field experiment was conducted during summer season of 2006 (Masipattam) to evaluate the optimum time of sowing and spacing for realizing higher seed yield. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design (RBD) with six replications. The treatments consisted of two factors: (i) time of sowing (second fortnight of February and first fortnight of March) and (ii) crop geometries (30 x 30 cm, 45 x 15 cm, 30 x 10 cm and 15 x 10 cm).The results of the experiment field revealed that performance of test variety of KS 95010 was superior when sown early during the second fortnight of February (Masipattam) in the rectangular geometry of 45 x 15 cm under irrigated condition in the karaikal region.