The Appropriate Sowing Time and Plant Density to Achieve Higher Yield of Cluster Beans

Zubair, Muhammad; Minhas, Rashid; Akram, Muhammad I.; Rehman, Mashal; Khan, Madiha M.; Bukhari, Muhammad Sh.; Hussain, Sabir; Ullah, Rahmat; Akhtar, Imran; Hussain, Syed W.; Rehman, Saeed Ur

doi:10.21608/agro.2022.142606.1323

The Appropriate Sowing Time and Plant Density to Achieve Higher Yield of Cluster Beans

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Agricultural Research Station, Bahawalpur, Pakistan

² Regional Agriculture Research Institute (RARI), Bahawalpur, Pakistan

³ Cotton Research Station, Bahawalpur, Pakistan

⁴ Entomology Research sub-station, Bahawalpur, Pakistan

⁵ Soil and Water Testing Laboratory Lodhran, Pakistan

10.21608/agro.2022.142606.1323

Abstract

An experiment conducted on the guar crop had three main objectives. Choosing the ideal time to sow, determining the appropriate plant density, and examining the effects of various planting dates and plant densities on the yield and yield-related factors of various guar varieties. The field experiment was conducted at the Agricultural Research Station in Bahawalpur in 2019 and 2020. Two guar genotypes (BR-2017 and S-6384) were used in a split-split plot design with three replications to evaluate the three plant densities (D1: 15, D2: 25, and D3: 40 plants/m²) and six planting dates (from 1^st May to 15^th July).
The results showed that the early sowing dates (1^st May to 1^st June) improved the plant height, pod length, clusters per plant, number of pods per cluster, grain per pod, and seed yield. The late planting dates (15^th June to 15^th July) produced the lowest values of these attributes. The results showed that the yield was not affected by the plant density, but other morphological traits were varied. The study found a significant difference in the yield between the two guar varieties at all the sowing times and plant densities tested. In 2019, BR-2017 had the best yield, and S-6384 had the best yield in 2020.
It is concluded that farmers in Pakistan should sow their guar crop between the 1^st of May to the 1^st of June. It is important to note that plant density has a marginal effect on yield. In two years, both guar genotypes performed admirably.

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