Variation in biochemical attributes and rust reaction in response to crop geometry in mono-picking garden pea for mechanical harvesting

The present study was conducted on single-harvest garden pea to standardize the agronomic practices for mechanized cultivation in India. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with 30 treatments comprising five dates of sowing, viz. 20th October, 5th November, 20th November, 5th December and 20th December in main plots and 2 different planting methods (flat and bed) sown at three different spacing (20 * 5 cm, 20 * 7.5 cm and 20 * 10 cm) in subplots and replicated three times. The bed size was standardized according to front loading width of the pea combine. The sowing of garden pea cv. Punjab-89 on 5th November at intermediate spacing of 20 * 7.5 cm resulted into significantly higher green pod yield of 136.2 q/ha (in single harvest) which was statistically at par with same sowing date i.e. 5th November at wider (135.0 q/ha) and closer spacing (131.4 q/ha), which was due to cool temperature during plant growth, moderate temperature during pod development and filling stage. The significant interactions were observed between date of sowing and spacing for total yield, protein content and rust incidence. However, for all the traits, there is nonsignificant interaction for date of sowing with sowing method, spacing with sowing method and 3-way interaction between date of sowing, spacing and sowing method. The late sown (20th December) crop resulted lowest total yield but less incidence of rust incidence which was due to high temperature and low relative humidity at pod development and filling stage.