Agricultural Research Station, Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Reddipalli
1 Present address: Department of Agronomy, S.V. Agricultural College, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh 517501
2 Agricultural Research Station, Anantapur 515001
A field study was conducted during the winter season of 1994–95 and 1995–96 to find out the effect of date of sowing and moisture regime on ‘Vemana’ November- and December-sown groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) crop produced significantly less dry matter than January-sown crop and the variations were due to minimum temperature during the pod-filling phase. However, early sowings resulted in larger proportion of dry-matter accumulation in pods. While January sowings accumulated more percentage of photosynthates in other plant parts. Weather played dominant role in dry-matter production and partitioning compared to irrigation schedules. January-sown crop with irrigation scheduled at IW: CPE ratio of 1.0 accumulated less pod weight per unit land area compared with Novernber-and December-sown crops at IW: CPE ratio of 0.8, indicating dominant role of weather. Pod growth rate (r = 0.7639**) as well as pod yield (r = 0.7923**) were positively and significantly influenced by the differences in diurnal variation in temperature which accounted for 69.0 (R2 = 0.69) and 63.0% (R2 = 0.063) variation in pod growth rate and pod yield respectively. Sowings during 16 November-16 December were found ideal for dry-matter partitioning and final yield of groundnut.
