Journal of Advances in Biology & Biotechnology

Aim: The main objective of this study is to work out the performance of rabi groundnut varieties under different times of sowing, to study the late leaf spot disease pressure on rabi groundnut sown under different times.

Study Design: Split plot design.

Place and Duration of Study: The experiment was conducted in the farm of Agricultural Research Station, Utukur, Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, India which is situated at 14.45⁰N latitude and 78.81⁰E longitude from rabi 2019-20 to 2022-23 to study the effect of dates of sowing and varietal performance of groundnut.

Methodology: The treatments included five sowing windows as main plots viz., S₁: October I FN, S₂: October II FN, S₃: November I FN, S₄: November II FN and S₅: December I FN and four varieties as sub plots viz., V₁: Kadiri-6, V₂: Dheeraj, V₃: TAG-24 and V₄: Nithyaharitha which were laid out in Split plot design with three replications.

Results: Maximum pod yield of 2784 kg/ha was recorded with November II FN which was on par with December I FN (2527 kg/ha) sowing with all the yield attributes viz., number of filled pods per plant (25), 100 kernel weights (48.5 g) and shelling percentage (79.4 %). Minimum pod yield was recorded with October I FN (1910 kg/ha) sowing. Among the four groundnut varieties tested, Nithyaharitha has recorded a higher pod yield (2661 kg/ha) and low percentage of leaf spot infestation (6.30%) followed by TAG-24 (9.32 %), Dheeraj (10.92 %) and Kadiri-6 (14.96 %).

Conclusion: During rabi, groundnut variety Nithyaharitha sown during November II FN and December I FN resulted in maximum pod yield with low per cent of disease index.