Effect of planting time and spacing on maturity, quality and seed yield of bell pepper, Capsicum annuum L

The present investigation was carried out at vegetable research farm of the Department of Vegetable Science, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan during Kharif 2011 to investigate the effect on seed yield and its attributes in bell pepper cv Solan Bharpur as influenced by planting time and spacing. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design factorial comprising of 24 treatment combinations of different planting time viz P₁(4 April), P₂(11 April), P₃ (18 April), P₄(25 April), P₅(02 May), P₆(09 May), P₇(16 May) and P₈(23 May) and spacing viz S₁(60 x 45 cm), S₂(45 x 45 cm) and S₃(45 x 30 cm). The results of the experiment showed that maturity, quality, seed yield and its components significantly varied with variation of planting time and spacing. Among all the treatment combinations P₇ x S₁(16 May, 60 x 45 cm) was found the best for days to maturity for fully ripe fruits whereas P₂ x S₁ (11 April, 60 x 45 cm) revealed the best results for number of seeds and weight per fruit (g), seed recovery (%), seed yield per plant (g), fruit rot incidence (%), seed germination (%), seed vigor index I and II and 1000-seed weight (g). In overall P₂ x S₃ (11 April 11, 45x30cm) resulted in the highest seed yield per plot(kg) and per ha (q).