Department of Vegetable Science, Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj -224 229, Faizabad, UP
Online published on 16 September, 2014.
The present experiment was conducted to standardize the weight of seed sett and spacing aiming for the production of planting material of elephant foot yam. Fourteen different treatment combinations comprising seven seed sett sizes viz.S1: 50g,S2: 75g, S3: 100g,S4: 125g, S5: 150g, S6: 175g, S7: 200g, and two planting distances viz. P1: 60 x 30 cm and P2: 60 x 45 cm were tested for their effect on the production of seed corms. Observations for plant height (cm), canopy spread (cm), seed corm yield per plant (g) and seed corm yield per hectare (q) were recorded. There was not any appreciable difference among the treatments for plant height and ranged between 84.30 to 87.18 cm. Contrary to plant height, wider spacing coupled with larger seed sett size favoured canopy spread, maximum being 70.44 cm with 200 g seed corm planted at 60 x 45 cm spacing. Substantially higher seed corm yield per plant was recorded under 60 x 45 cm planting distance than that of 60 x 30 cm. Increasing trends of plant height, canopy spread, seed corm yield per plant and seed corm yield per hectare was noted with the increase in seed sett size from 50 g to 200 g. The interaction effect of planting distance and seed size seemed significant, and maximum corm yield per plant (1183.20 g) and per hectare (43.82 t) was obtained under 60 x 45 cm plant spacing and 200 g seed sett size. Through this experiment it may be concluded that the most economical way to produce the preferred size of seed corms (500–600 g) in elephant foot yam is by planting seed setts of 75 g at 60 x 45 cm apart.
