Evaluation of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) under semi-arid conditions of Punjab

A study was conducted during the winter (rabi) seasons of 201819 and 201920 at Amritsar, Punjab, to evalu- ate the influence of sowing time and split nitrogen on growth and yield of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The experiment was conducted in a split-plot design, consisting of 5 sowing dates (D , 25 October; D , 5 November, D , 1 2 3 15 November, D , 25 November and D , 5 December) in main plots and 4 split nitrogen treatments as N , 50 % at 4 5 1 sowing + 25% at the first irrigation + 25% at the second irrigation; N , 25% at sowing + 50% at the first irrigation + 2 25% at the second irrigation; N , 50% at the first irrigation + 50% at the second irrigation; N , 50% at sowing + 50% 3 4 at the first irrigation in subplots, replicated thrice. The results revealed that, plant height, dry-matter accumulation, leaf-area index and number of tillers decreased significantly with delay in sowing from D to D at all stages of plant 1 5 growth. The grain and biological yields were significantly higher in D sowing date than the other sowing dates, but 1 remained at par with D . The pooled grain yield decreased by 4% from D to D , 10% from D to D , 16% from D to 2 1 2 1 3 1 D and 23 % from D to D sowing dates. Significantly higher values of growth attributes and yield were recorded 4 1 5 with split application of nitrogen N , which remained at par with N , and significantly better than other treatments. 4 1 Time of nitrogen treatment N resulted in more net returns (66,824 `/ha) and benefit: cost ratio (2.32) and was fol- 4, lowed by D sowing date for net returns (70,948`/ha) and benefit: cost ratio (2.22). 1