Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana to study the influence of nursery age and inter-row spacing on crop phenology of canola (Brassica napus L.) varieties under late sown conditions. In variety GSC-6, flowering occurred in 45 and 60 days old nursery during nursery raising which showed that 45 and 60 days old nursery was not suitable for transplanting of this variety. Hyola PAC 401 transplanted with 60 days nursery took 11.7 to 12.7 days for 50% flowering, whereas GSL-1 took 56.7 to 57.7 days. Irrespective of varieties, the crop transplanted with 30, 45, 60 days nursery and direct seeded crop took 59.6 to 61.1, 44.6 to 45.8, 22.8 to 23.4 and 80.9 to 81.8 days for 50% flowering, respectively. Hyola PAC 401 and GSL-1 transplanted with 60 days nursery took 20 and 67.3 to 68.7 days, respectively, for 50% siliquae formation, irrespective of spacings. Direct seeded crop took significantly more number of days for siliquae formation (88.6 to 89.8 days) as compared to transplanted crop (29.1 to 70.1 days). Crop maturity was found to be enhanced significantly with higher age of nursery seedlings. The crop transplanted with 60 days nursery took least number of days to mature (114.4 to 114.8 days) followed by 30 days old seedling (118.7 to 119.2 days), 45 days old seedling (122.8 to 123.0 days) and direct seeded crop (125.0 to 125.1 days)