Evaluation of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) under semi-arid conditions of Punjab

A study was conducted during the winter (rabi) seasons of 2018–19 and 2019–20 at Amritsar, Punjab, to evaluate the influence of sowing time and split nitrogen on growth and yield of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The experiment was conducted in a split-plot design, consisting of 5 sowing dates (D₁, 25 October; D₂, 5 November, D₃, 15 November, D₄, 25 November and D₅, 5 December) in main plots and 4 split nitrogen treatments as N₁, 50% at sowing + 25% at the first irrigation + 25% at the second irrigation; N₂, 25% at sowing + 50% at the first irrigation + 25% at the second irrigation; N₃, 50% at the first irrigation + 50% at the second irrigation; N₄, 50% at sowing + 50% at the first irrigation in subplots, replicated thrice. The results revealed that, plant height, dry-matter accumulation, leaf-area index and number of tillers decreased significantly with delay in sowing from D₁ to D₅ at all stages of plant growth. The grain and biological yields were significantly higher in D₁ sowing date than the other sowing dates, but remained at par with D₂. The pooled grain yield decreased by 4% from D₁ to D₂, 10% from D₁ to D₃, 16% from D₁ to D₄ and 23% from D₁ to D₅ sowing dates. Significantly higher values of growth attributes and yield were recorded with split application of nitrogen N₄, which remained at par with N₁, and significantly better than other treatments. Time of nitrogen treatment N₄ resulted in more net returns (66,824 ₹/ha) and benefit: cost ratio (2.32) and was followed by D₁ sowing date for net returns (70,948₹/ha) and benefit: cost ratio (2.22).