Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during winter (rabi) seasons of 2012–13 and 2013–14 at the experimental farm of the ICAR–Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan located at Hawalbagh, Almora. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with four replications. The treatments consisted of two fertility levels viz., unfertilized control (F0) and recommended dose of fertilizers–60: 30: 20 kg NPK/ha (F1) in main plots, while three sowing methods viz., broadcasting/farmer's practice (S1), line sowing –manual (S2) and line sowing with multi-crop planter (S3) in sub-plots. Under poor residual soil moisture, fertilizer application resulted in higher effective tillers/m2, plant height, yield attributes, yield and B: C ratio than control. Among sowing methods, multi-crop planter recorded the highest seedling emergence, number of tillers/m2, plant height, yield attributes, yield and B: C ratio. Sowing of wheat with recommended dose of fertilizer with multi-crop planter, which provides simultaneous placement of seed and fertilizer, was very effective under extremely low residual soil moisture conditions which are basic features during sowing of rabi crops in the region.