Impact of dates of sowing and plant geometry on growth and nutrient uptake of ricebean (Vigna umbellata L.)

On-site investigations were performed during kharif season of 2022 at the College of Agriculture, Kalaburagi, to examine the influence of sowing schedules and planting configurations on the growth and nutrient assimilation of ricebean. The study was designed using a split-plot layout with three replications. The trial involved two treatment factors: sowing time assigned to the main plots with four intervals—second fortnight of July, first fortnight of August, second fortnight of August, and first fortnight of September—and spacing arrangements in the subplots with three planting geometries—30 cm × 10 cm, 45 cm × 10 cm, and 60 cm × 10 cm. The findings revealed that ricebean seeded during the first fortnight of August exhibited significantly greater growth attributes viz., tallness of crop, quantity of branches and leaves per plant, leaf area, total biomass gain (67.91 cm, 30.08, 64.14, 51.64 cm2 plant-1, 27.75 g plant-1, respectively) and nutrient uptake of nitrogen (34.53 kg ha-1), phosphorous (22.7 kg ha-1) and potassium (85.31 kg ha-1) compared to other sowing periods. Among different plant geometry, 30 cm x 10 cm documented significantly higher plant height (64.05 cm), but count of clusters and leaves, leaf area, total biomass production was notably higher (27.01, 59.86, 45.16 cm2 plant-1, 23.92 g plant-1 respectively) with 60 cm x 10 cm. Besides higher nutrient acquisition of nitrogen (30.54 kg ha-1), phosphorous (18.20 kg ha-1) and potassium (76.48 kg ha-1). In addition, it showed similar performance to the 45 cm × 10 cm spacing.