Abstract

An experiment was conducted consecutively for three years from rabi 2012–13 to 2014–15 at Rajasthan Agricultural Research Institute, Durgapura, Jaipur to find out the effect of dates of sowing on two and six-rowed barley varieties under changing climatic conditions in semi-arid eastern plain zone of Rajasthan. The experiment was conducted with four dates of sowing i. e. 26th Oct.-5th Nov. (D1), 6th-15th Nov. (D2), 16th-25th Nov. (D3) and 26th Nov.-5th Dec. (D4) and four barley varieties i. e. BH 902 & RD 2552 (six-rowed) and DWRUB 52 & RD 2668 (two-rowed). These treatment combinations were tested under split plot design with three replications. The data indicated that significantly higher grain and straw yields were obtained with early planting date i. e. 6th to 15th Nov. (D2) followed by 26th Oct. to 5th Nov. (D1) than that of late planting dates for all genotypes during all the years. Effective tillers/sq. m, 1000-grain weight and grains/spike were also higher in early planting date i. e. 6th to 15 Nov. (D2) than that of late planting date during all the years. Amongst the varieties, BH 902 & RD 2552 (six-rowed barley) gave significantly higher grain and straw yields during all the years as compared to DWRUB 64 & RD 2668 (two-rowed barley). Effective tillers/sq. m and grains/spike were also higher, while 1000grain weight was lower with six-rowed barley during all the years as compared to tworowed barley.