EFFECT OF DIFFERENT SPACING AND TRANSPLANTING DATES ON THE GROWTH AND YIELD OF CAULIFLOWER (BRASSICAE OLERACEA VAR. BOTRYTIS L.)

An experiment entitled Effect of different spacing and transplanting dates on growth and yield of cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis) was carried out at the experimental farm, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, DAV University, Jalandhar during 2019. The treatment combinations comprised of three dates of planting viz., 6th November, 23th November and 8th December and three spacings viz., 45×50cm, 50 x 50 cm and 50 x 60 cm in a Randomized Block Design (RBD) with three replications. The cauliflower transplanted on the 2nd date of planting i.e. 23th November reported significantly maximum yield (9.03kg) over the other dates of planting, while spacing 50 x 60 cm showed significantly maximum growth for height, number of leaves, stem diameter. Whereas, the maximum number of days taken to curd initiation (114.33) and maturity (14.66) was recorded from 45cm×50cm spacing with 8th November transplanting dates. It can be concluded that the wider spacing gave best results for number of leaves per plant, plant height, stem diameter, curd diameter and yield. Interaction effect of spacing and transplanting datesresulted significance difference for all the character under study except plant height and number of days to curd maturity. It was observed that plants sown on 23 November resulted in superior performance for most of the traits studied. Among spacing, desirable results were observed at closer spacing of 50 cm × 50 cm. Considering the interaction of sowing dates and spacing it was found that plants sown on 23 November with the spacing of 50 cm × 50 cm can resulted in superior performance with respect to growth and yield parameters of cauliflower.