Effect of Sowing Time and Weed Management Practices on Phenophases of Summer Sesame

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) ranks as one of the most important oilseed crops in India, following groundnut, rapeseed, and mustard. In many developing countries, sesame is predominantly cultivated by small-scale farmers, as it is widely recognised for its drought tolerance. A field experiment entitled “Effect of dates of sowing and weed management practices on summer sesame in the new alluvial zone of West Bengal was conducted during the summer season of 2022 and 2023 at the Instructional farm, Jaguli, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, West Bengal, India. The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with three main plot treatments (dates of sowing) and eight sub-plot treatments (weed management practices) replicated thrice. Main plot treatments comprised of three dates of sowing, i.e. D1: Sowing on February 21st, D2: Sowing on March 7th, and D3: Sowing on March 22nd. Subplot treatments comprised eight weed management practices. Sesame variety ‘Savitri’ was chosen for the experiment. The phenophases (days to emergence, days to flowering, days to 50% flowering, days from flowering to maturity and days to maturity) of sesame were significantly influenced by main plots (dates of sowing) treatments only. Subplots and interactions between main plots and subplots were found to be non-significant. Among the dates of sowing, D3: sowing on March 22nd registered shorter days of phenophases [days to emergence (7.06 days), days to flowering (34.82 days), days to 50% flowering (46.85 days), days from flowering to maturity (34.90 days) and days to maturity (88.85 days)]. March 7th sowing registered significantly higher seed yield (771.10 kg ha-1), stalk yield (2312.55 kg ha-1) and biological yield (3083.64 kg ha-1). W8 (weed-free condition) and W1 [application of Pendimethalin @ 1 kg a.i. ha-1 (2 DAS) + Hand weeding (30 DAS)] recorded significantly higher seed yield (808.58 and 791.88kg ha-1 respectively), stalk yield (2397.28 kg ha-1 and 2343.35 kg ha-1 respectively) and biological yield (3205.86 and 3135.24 kg ha-1 respectively).