Performance of Wheat Varieties under Late and Very Late Sowing Conditions

A field experiment was initiated to study the performance of seven wheat varieties under late and very late sowing conditions. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with fourteen treatment combinations in three replications. Treatments consisted of two sowing conditions i.e. late sown (11.12.2013) and very late sown (06.01.2014) in main plots and seven wheat varieties viz. PBW590, DBW90, WH1129, PBW550, HD3059, WH1021 and WH1124 in the sub plots. The results revealed that there was no statistical difference among sowing dates for yield and yield attributing characters, but significant differences were observed among different varieties in relation to yield and yield contributing parameters like effective tillers (m-2), number of grains per spike and 1000 grain weight (g). Among varieties, HD3059 was the top yielder (48.11qha-1) which proved significantly superior over PBW590, PBW550 and WH1021 and was statistically at par with WH1124, DBW 90 and WH1129. HD3059 can be considered as best variety for growing in late and very late sowing conditions.