Analysis of maturity related characters and identification of early maturing varieties in groundnut

Abstract

With the intention of identifying suitable superior early maturing genotypes for intensive cultivation in the summer rice fallows of Kerala, a study was conducted for determining the time of optimum physiological maturity of twelve bunch type groundnut genotypes by analyzing the various maturity related component characters in staggered harvests. The twelve test genotypes and the yield and duration checks were staggered harvested at 70, 80, 90, 100 and 110 DAS. The characters that were put to study in each harvest included the height of plant, number and percentage of mature pods, pod yield, 100 pod weight, 100 kernel weight, shelling percentage, percentage of sound mature kernels, haulms yield, harvest index and oil percentage. Analysis of the various parameters in different genotypes indicated that peak pod yield and time of optimum maturity were closely associated with peak performances of components like number of mature pods, 100 pod weight, 100 kernel weight, sound mature kernel percentage and shelling percentage. It was also noted that the genotypes gave fairly high oil percentage at the time of optimum maturity. The genotypes IES 882, IES 883. IES885, ICGS(E) 21, ICGS(E) 52, ICGS(E) 121, Dh(E) 20 and Dh(E) 32 attained optimum physiological maturity at 90 DAS due to attainment of peak values for the various maturity related component characters. A critical appraisal however showed that the genotypes ICGS (E) 52 and IES 883 exhibited significantly superior performance over the remaining genotypes and the yield and duration checks at 90 DAS. The genotypes ICGS (E) 52 and IES 883 may be recommended for intensive cultivation in the summer rice fallows of Kerala owing to realization of high yield and yield attributes, combined with early maturity. ICGS (E) 52 ranked first with a pod yield 12.85 g per plant, 100 pod weight of 88.6 g and 100 kernel weight of 38.1 g. The genotype IES 883 stood second in performance with a pod yield of 12.00 g per plant, 100 pod weight of 88.3 g and 100 kernel weight of 36.2 g. Both the genotypes exhibited appreciably high performance for shelling percentage and sound mature kernel percentage also.