Effect of sowing dates, irrigation and mulching on growth and yield of wheat

A field experiment comprising of 12 treatments was carried out at the Research Farm of the School of Climate Change and Agricultural Meteorology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana for two consecutive rabi seasons of 2015–16 and 2016–17 in split plot design with three dates of sowing (D₁-fourth week of October, D₂-second week of November and D₃-fourth week of November) in main plots and two irrigation treatments (I₁(IW/CPE = 0.9) and I₂(CRI stage, 5–6 weeks after first irrigation, 3–4/5–6 weeks after 2^nd irrigation, 2/4 weeks after 3^rd irrigation as per date of sowing) as well as two mulch treatments M₁(without mulch) and M₂ (with rice straw mulch @ 5 t/ha) in sub plots. At 90 DAS, highest LAI of 4.35 was observed during 2016–17 in D₁ and lowest of 2.90 in D₃ during 2015–16. The grain yield was significantly higher under the D₁ (48.49 q/ha and 50.52 q/ha) as compared to D₂ (46.49 q/ha and 48.08 q/ha) and D₃ (41.58 q/ha and 42.95 q/ha) during both the crop seasons, whereas among the irrigation levels, the grain yield was significantly higher under the I₂ (47.33 q/ha and 49.66 q/ha) as compared to I₁ (43.72 q/ha and 44.71 q/ha). A linear increase in grain yield was observed with increase in growth parameters i.e. leaf area index (R² = 76.47 and 91.31), effective tiller number (R² = 87.42 and 93.50), plant height (R² = 83.78 and 59.53) and number of grains per ear (R² = 85.53 and 83.79) during both the years.