A. V. Bhosale, Ranbir Singh Rana and Manoj Bhargava
Abstract
Mustard, a rabi crop of Himachal Pradesh have varying effect of climate change on its production. A field experiment was conducted at CSK HPKV, Palampur during 2007-08 and 2008-09 with different dates of sowing of Indian mustard. The crop sown on 10th October produced significantly higher secondary branches per plant (7.3 and 7.7), number of siliquae per plant (301 and 295) and higher number of seeds (13.2 and 13.0) per siliqua. The genotype Varuna recorded 14.4% and 16.4% higher 1000-seed weight as compared to Kranti and RCC-4, respectively. Significantly higher seed yield was recorded in RCC-4 (1177.6 kg /ha) during first year which was 14.8 per cent and 21.8 per cent higher as compared to Varuna and Kranti, respectively. Amongst sowing dates, October 10, sown crop recorded significantly higher seed yield of 1403.9 kg /ha. Weather parameters i.e. maximum temperature, minimum temperature and evaporation were significantly and negatively correlated at 10th October. Except for 9th November sowing, rainfall showed significant and positive correlation with all other dates of sowing.