Effect of cultivars and organic management practices on phenological events of foxtail millet in Assam, India

Foxtail millet [Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.] is an important minor millet, which is drought tolerant, rich in micronutrients and grown in the marginal and rainfed regions of India. Phenological characters of foxtail millet (Setaria italica) are essential for understanding its growth, development, and overall productivity. Thus, a field experiment was conducted during the summer seasons of 2023 and 2024 in Assam, India to evaluate the effect of cultivars and organic management practices on the phenological characters of foxtail millet. The experiment was laid out in a factorial randomized block design (RBD) with three replications. The treatment consisted of two different factors viz., three foxtail millet cultivars C1: Gossaigaon local, C2: Majuli local, C3: SiA-3156 and four organic nutrient management practices. viz., O1: vermicompost @ 2t/ha, O2: seed biopriming with beejamrutha @ 4% +vermicompost @ 2t/ha, O3: seed biopriming with beejamrutha @ 4% +vermicompost @ 1t/ha+panchagavya @ 3% as foliar spray at 30 and 55 DAS and O4: seed biopriming with beejamrutha @ 4%+vermicompost @1t/ha+jeevamrutha @4% as foliar spray at 30 and 55 DAS. The results revealed that the phenological characters like days to emergence, days to tillering, days to maximum tillering, days to panicle emergence, days to 50% flowering and days to physiological maturity were significantly influenced by different cultivars and seed biopriming with beejamrutha along with foliar application of organic formulations. Among the cultivars, SiA-3156 took significantly lower number of days (6.67 days in 2023 and 6.77 days in 2024) for emergence, days (26.53 days in 2023 and 25.75 days in 2024) for tillering, days (43.91 days in 2023 and 43.08 days in 2024) to maximum tillering, days (53.93 days in 2023 and 54.04 days in 2024) to panicle emergence, days to 50% flowering (57.82 days in 2023 and 57.49 days in 2024) and days to physiological maturity (93.75 days in 2023 and 93.80 days in 2024). In case of organic management practices, O3: seed biopriming with beejamrutha @ 4% +vermicompost @ 1t/ha+panchagavya @ 3% as foliar spray at 30 and 55 DAS required minimum number of days to days to emergence, days to tillering, days to maximum tillering, days to panicle emergence, days to 50% flowering and days to physiological maturity.