Effect of dates of sowing on growth, yield and economics of pigeon pea varieties in mid central table land zone of Odisha

An experiment was carried out at RRTTS, Mahisapat, Dhenkanal, Odisha during the kharif season of two consecutive years, 2020 and 2021 to study the effect of dates of sowing on growth, yield and economics of pigeon pea varieties. The experiment was conducted in split plot design with replications. The 12 treatment combinations comprised of three dates of sowing (1st July, 15^th July and 1^st August) in main plots and four varieties (TTB 7, UPAS 120, Manak and Asha) in sub-plots. The sowing on 1^st July recorded significantly higher growth viz., plant height (156 cm), number of branches per plant (8.3), total dry matter accumulation per plant (69.30 g), number of pods per plant (183.6) and yield (seed, 11.53 q/ha and stover, 39.78 q/ha) with higher B:C of 2.02. The variety Manak recorded significantly higher growth viz., plant height (170.7 cm), number of branches per plant (9.4), total dry matter accumulation per plant (70.4 g), number of pods per plant (172.4) and yield (seed, 11.27 q/ha and stover, 38.88 q/ha) followed by variety Asha (162.9 cm height, 8.5 numbers per plant, 65.5 g dry matter accumulation per plant, 254.5 numbers of pods per plant, 10.85 q/ha seed and 36.67 q/ha stover) with B:C (2.00).