EFFECT OF SOWING DATES ON THE GROWTH OF TEA SEEDLINGS

Study on the effect of different seed sowing dates i.e. November 15, November 30, December 15, December 30 and January 15 on the growth performance of tea seedlings under the agro-ecological condition of Abbaspur,Azad Jammu and Kashmir was conducted at tea nursery Abbaspur district Poonch AJ&K during 2009-10 with the objectives to find out suitable time of tea seed sowing if tea seeds are picked during second week of November. It was found that that maximum survival % age (95.55%), plant height (23.94 cm), root length (21.78 cm) and fresh plant weight (10.83 g) was recorded in plants having sowing date of 15th November 2009, while seeds sown on 30th November produced the highest number of branches plant-1 (1.91) and number of leaves plant-1 (15.92).Survival % age, plant height, number of leaves plant-1 and root length were significantly different for different sowing dates while the differences for number of branches plant-1 and fresh plant weight were found non-significant. It was revealed that early seed sowing dates gave good growth performance as compared to late sowing.