Effect of date of transplanting and crop covers on growth attributes and flowering of chilli

A research study was conducted in year of 2021-22 at the Instructional Farm, Department of Vegetable Science, College of Horticulture, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, to evaluate the impact of transplanting dates and crop covers on the growth and flowering in chilli. The experiment followed a Factorial Randomized Block Design with twelve treatment combinations, each replicated three times. Treatments included three transplanting dates: T1 (25th November), T2 (10th December) and T3 (25th December) and three crop cover thickness: viz., C1 (17gsm), C2 (20gsm) and C3 (23gsm) and one control C4 (without crop cover). Among the different treatment combinations, the T1C1 (November 25 transplanting + 17gsm crop cover) proved to be the most effective, significantly improving growth parameters including plant height, number of branches, plant spread, stem girth and leaf area. While in flowering aspect minimum days required to first flower initiation (32.14) and 50% flowering (42.19) was noticed in treatment combinations T3C1 (November 25 transplanting + 17 gsm crop cover).