LAKSHMAN, K.CHANDRU, S.2022-08-082022-08-082022-08-08D6215https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810186120INFLUENCE OF DATES OF SOWING ON PERFORMANCE OF GROUNDNUT (Arachis hypogaea L.) VARIETIESA field experiment was conducted on sandy loam soil during kharif 2019-20 at Agricultural college Farm, Bapatla to study the “Influence of dates of sowing on performance of different groundnut(Arachis hypogaea L.) varieties” The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with Factorial concept having three replications.The treatmentsconsists of three varieties of groundnut viz. Dharani (V1), Nithyaharitha (v2), TAG-24 (V3) as first factor and three sowing windows viz, 2nd fortnight of July (D1), 1st fortnight of August (D2) and 2nd fortnight of August (D3) as other factor . The results revealed that the growth parameters viz, plant height, drymatter accumulation, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, yield attributes and yield were significantly influenced by varieties and dates of sowing, Although their interaction was found non significant. Groundnut crop sown on the 2nd Fortnight of July recorded significantly taller plants, more number of branches per plant, maximum drymatter accumulation and more number of days to reach 50% flowering and days to maturity, Number of pods per plant, seed index, kernel per pod, shelling %, Harvest Index (HI) and Yield. Among the varieties, significantly higher values in growth parameters and yield attributes were recorded with TAG-24 variety. The highest pod yield of 2442 kg ha-1 was recorded with 2nd fortnight of July. Among the varieties highest pod yield of 2381 kg ha-1 was recorded with the variety TAG-24 and found significantly superior over other varieties. Highest values of all climatic normals/Agroclimatic/weather health indices viz, GDD, HTU, PTU, HtUE, PtUE were recorded with 2nd fortnight of July (D1) irrespective of the varieties. Among the varieties TAG-24 (V3) recorded all the optimum values of weather health indices/climatic normals. These climatic normals were found optimum for all varieties to produce maximum potential yield. The highest gross return of Rs. 85850 ha-1, net returns of Rs. 51883 ha-1 were recorded with the TAG-24 variety sown on 2nd fortnight of July (D1). Among the varieties maximum returns per rupee invested (Rs. 1.52) was recorded with the TAG-24 variety sown on 2nd fortnight of July compared to other varieties.EnglishThesis