Relationship between agrometeorological indices, crop phenology and yield of pigeonpea as influenced by different dates of sowing and varieties

The Field experiment was executed during 2023-24 at Research farm AICRP Agrometeorology, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani to study effect of weather parameters on pigeon pea varieties under different dates of sowing and agrometeorological indices during Kharif season. The field experiment was laid out in a split plot design with three replications. There were 36 treatment combinations comprising of four sowing dates viz., 25^th, 26^th, 27^th and 28^th SMW as main plot treatments and three varieties viz., BDN-711, BDN-716 and GODAVARI as sub plot treatments. The pooled data showed that, sowing of pigeon pea during 25^th MW recorded significantly higher growth parameters viz., plant height, number of branches plant^-1 with yield attributing characters viz., number of pods plant^-1, grain yield, straw and biological yield. The variety BDN-716 was significantly superior over other varieties. The highest grain, straw yields and biological yield were recorded with the variety BDN-716 sown on 25^th MW, with respect to other dates of sowing and varieties. The agrometeorological indices result data showed that D₁ (25^th MW) sowing date and V₂ (BDN-716) variety recorded significantly higher value of yield and growing degree days (GDD), helio-thermal units (HTU), and Photo-thermal unit, besides took more days to reach different phenophases as compared to other treatment. This indicated that BDN-716 sown on 25^th MW should be adopted in pigeon pea cultivars to achieve maximum yield under varied weather condition.