Effect of sowing environments and genotypes on growth and yield of linseed (Linum usitatissimum)

An experiment was conducted during the winter (rabi) season of 2010–11 and 2011–12 at Chatha, Jammu, to study the effect of genotypes and sowing time on yield, yield components and development rates of linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.). The treatments comprised of 4 sowing dates, viz. 20 October, 30 October, 10 November and 20 November in main plots and 4 varieties (‘LC 2023’, ‘LC 2063’, ‘LC 54’ and ‘Local variety’) in sub-plots, replicated thrice in a split-plot design. Sowing dates as well as varieties significantly affected growth characters; yield attributes and yields in both the years. Sowing on 20 October during both the seasons was the most optimum time, as it recorded the maximum seed yield of 1.11 t/ha. Sowing on 20 October also gave the highest net returns (11, 701/ha) and benefit: cost ratio of 1.47. Sowing of linseed on 20 October remained superior to later sowing dates by recording 9.9, 21.9 and 33.7% higher seed yield. Linseed varieties differed significantly for yield attributes and yield in both the seasons. The highest number of capsules/plant, seeds/capsule and 1, 000-seed weight, seed and stover yields were given by ‘LC 2063’ in both the seasons. The results indicated that variety ‘LC 2063’ exceeded ‘LC 2023’, ‘LC 54’ and ‘Local’ ones in terms of seed yield by 9.0, 17.2 and 31.3%, respectively. All yield components were significantly influenced by weather as represented by the year of sowing. The environmental factors most likely to affect yields were temperature and sunshine hours due to their effect on development rate. Highly significant positive correlation was observed in linseed seed yield with capsules/plant, seeds/capsule, 1, 000-seed weight, biological yield and harvest index. The character like biological yield had maximum positive direct effect on economic yield followed by seeds/capsule.