Effect of Environmental Variation and Phosphorus Nutrition on the Performance and Economics of Soybean Cultivars of Central India

Paucity of information on management practices to enhance seed germination, seeding emergence and development for an economically important crop of central India led to the conductance of field experiment in split - plot design, on deep Vertisols. Experiment aimed at determining the influence of planting date (main plot), cultivators (sub - plot) and phosphorus levels (sub-sub plot) on growth and development of soybean. Results indicated that early planting of soybean resulted in higher germination in all the cultivars, whereas under late planting condition though the period required for emergence was less but the germination was reduced by 61.6 per cent. Significantly higher seed yield and B:C ratio was recorded in early planting under all the varieties and levels of phosphorus. The interaction effect of planting date x variety x phosphorus level was highly significant, as indicated by rooting pattern and yield attributing characters.