Effect of time of sowing on yield of linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) varieties in Uttar Bastar Kanker district of Chhattisgarh

Introduction

Linseed is an important oilseed and fibre crop in the world. Linseed is one of the most important industrial oilseed crops of India and stands next to rapeseed-mustard in rabi oilseeds in area and production. In India, it is grown mainly for seeds, used for extracting oil. In industrial oil production, it ranks first in the country. Seeds are directly used for edible purposes on a very small scale. Linseed plants are small, hardy and require less management. It is such a valuable crop that every part of the linseed plant is utilized commercially, either directly or after processing. Seeds contain about 33 to 45% oil, fat 41-42%, protein 18-20%, Dietary fibre 27-28%, carbohydrate 29%, sugar 1.5% and water 7%. Linseed fibre is used for manufacturing of linen. Stover and short fibres may be used as raw pulp for making paper of quality comparable with that of currency notes. The oil is rich (>66%) in linolenic acid, and is a perfect drying oil. Hence it is utilized in the manufacture of paints, oil cloth, varnish, pad-ink, printed ink, linoleum etc. Linseed oil is the richest plant source of linoleic (omega-6) and linolenic (omega-3) poly unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), which are essential fatty acids for human beings since they cannot be synthesized in the organism and must be obtained from food and have several human health benefits. It is grown in our country under both rainfed and irrigated conditions and also cultivated as an Utera system. Linseed is an important rabi season oilseed crop, next to rapeseed and mustard for economic importance. In India, linseed is cultivated in an area of nearly 2.39 lakh hectares, producing around 1.67 lakh tonnes seed, with an average productivity of 698 kg ha⁻¹. In Chhattisgarh state, the area under linseed cultivation is very low and nearly 0.08 lakh hectare with 0.03 lakh tonnes production and poor productivity of 385 kg ha -1 (Anonymous, 2025) [1] . The reason for low productivity is poor crop management practices, age-old varieties and delayed sowing. Productivity can be increased by adopting improved agronomic practices and varieties sown at optimum time. Linseed crop under semi-arid region when sown during mid-November encountered favorable environmental conditions resulting in higher yields as compared to delayed sowing. In Bastar Plateau region of Chhattisgarh not much work has been done on linseed crop. Therefore, it becomes imperative to undertake the study to find out the optimum sowing time for promising linseed varieties in Uttar Bastar Kanker district of Chhattisgarh.

Materials and Methods

A field experiment was conducted at Instructional cum Research Farm, Ramprasad Potai College of Agriculture & Research Station, Singarbhat, Kanker, District-Uttar Bastar Kanker, (C.G.) during rabi season of 2021-22 and 2022-23. The soil of experimental site was sandy loam, with low in available nitrogen (131.71 kg ha -1 ) and available phosphorus (10.83 kg ha -1 ) and medium in available potassium (190.67 kg ha -1 ) and organic carbon (0.52%) and neutral in reaction (6.5 pH). This experiment was conducted under split plot design. Four different times of sowing viz., T 1: 1 st week of November, T 2: 3 rd week of November, T 3: 1 st week of December and T 4: 3 rd week of December were taken in the main plot. Main plots were divided into sub-plots and four varieties viz., V 1: RLC-92, V 2: RLC-143, V 3: RLC-133 and V 4: JLS-95 were sown in sub plot of each main plot and replicated three times. Two tonnes FYM and recommended dose of nutrients 60,30,30,20 kg N, P 2 O5, K 2 O, S ha -1 were applied. Half of the nitrogen and full doses of P 2 O 5 , K 2 O and S were applied as basal and remaining ½ N applied after first irrigation about 30-35 DAS in the crop. Linseed varieties were grown with recommended package of practices under irrigated condition.

Results and Discussion

Number of filled capsule plant -1 and total number of capsule plant -1

Among the various time of sowing, crop sown in the 1 st week of November produced significantly higher number of filled capsules plant -1 and total number of capsules plant -1 , which were at par with crop sown in the 3 rd week of November during both the years and on mean basis. Lowest number of filled capsules plant -1 and total number of capsules plant -1 were recorded with crop sown in the 3 rd week of December during both the years and on mean basis. Similar results were obtained by Bhalavi et al. (2023) [3] , Narra et al. (2021) [7] and Alam et al. (2025) [2] . Among the varieties, significantly higher number of filled capsules plant -1 was observed with variety RLC-92 during 2021-22 and on mean basis and it was found to be at par with variety JLS-95, while variety JLS-95 recorded significantly higher number of filled capsules plant -1 during 2022-23, which was found at par with variety RLC-92. Whereas, variety JLS-95 recorded significantly higher total number of capsules plant -1 which was found to be at par with variety RLC-92 during both the years and on mean basis. Lowest number of capsules plant -1 and total number of capsules plant -1 recorded with variety RLC-133. Similar results were also obtained by Durgeshwari et al. (2023) [4] , Kumar et al. (2022) [5] , Sahu et al. (2021) [8] and Sahu et al. (2020) [9] .

Number of seeds capsule -1 and test weight

Number of seeds capsule -1 was recorded significantly higher in crop sown in the 1 st week of November which was at par with 3 rd week of November sowing whereas, lowest number of seeds capsule -1 was recorded with crop sown in the 3 rd week of December during 2022-23 and on mean basis. All the time of sowing recorded equal number of seeds capsule -1 during 2021-22. Similar results were also reported by Bhalavi et al. (2023) [3] , Narra et al. (2021) [7] and Alam et al. (2025) [2] . In case of varieties, variety RLC-92 recorded significantly higher number of seeds capsule -1 which was at par with variety RLC-133 during 2021-22 and on mean basis. Whereas, variety RLC-133 recorded significantly higher number of seeds capsule -1 during 2022-23 and it was found to be at par with both varieties RLC-192 and RLC-143. Lowest number of seeds capsule -1 was recorded in variety JLS-95 during both the years and on mean basis. Durgeshwari et al. (2023) [4] , Kumar et al. (2022) [5] , Sahu et al. (2021) [8] and Sahu et al. (2020) [9] . Crop sown on both 1 st week of November and 3 rd week of November were recorded significantly higher equal test weight during both the years and on mean basis, which was found at par with 1 st week of December sowing. Crop sown on 3 rd week of December recorded lowest test weight during both the years and on mean basis. Similar results were also reported by Bhalavi et al. (2023) [3] , Narra et al. (2021) [7] and Alam et al. (2025) [2] . In case of varieties, both varieties RLC-92 and JLS-95 were recorded significantly higher equal test weight during 2021-22 and on mean basis, which was at par with variety RLC-133. Similarly, variety JLS-95 recorded significantly higher test weight during 2022-23, which was found at par with both varieties RLC-92 and RLC-133. Variety RLC-143 recorded lowest test weight during both the years and on mean basis. Similar findings were also reported by Durgeshwari et al. (2023) [4] , Kumar et al. (2022) [5] and Sahu et al. (2021) [8] and Sahu et al. (2020) [9] .

Yields and harvest index

Among the various time of sowing, crop sown in the 1 st week of November resulted in significantly higher seed yield which was statistically at par with 3 rd week of November sowing during both the years and on mean basis. Crop sown on 1 st week of November resulted in significantly higher stover yield, which was statistically at par with 3 rd week of November sowing during 2021-22 and on mean basis and also found at par with 1 st week of December sowing on mean basis. Whereas, crop sown in the 3 rd week of November resulted in significantly higher stover yield during 2022-23, which was found to be at par with crop sown on 1 st week of November and 1 st week of December. Crop sown on 1 st week of November resulted in significantly higher biological yield which was statistically at par with crop sown on 3 rd week of November during 2021-22 and on mean basis. Similarly, crop sown on 1 st week of November and 3 rd week of November both were recorded significantly higher equal biological yield which was found at par with 1 st week of December sowing during 2022-23. Crop sown on 1 st week of November resulted in significantly higher harvest index (%), which was statistically at par with crop sown in the 3 rd week of November during both the years and on mean basis. Whereas, crop sown in the 3 rd week of December resulted in the lowest seed yield, stover yield, biological yield and harvest index during both the years and on mean basis. Similar results have also been reported by Bhalavi et al. (2023) [3] , Narra et al. (2021) [7] , Alam et al. (2025) [2] , Kumhare et al. (2022) [6] , Sunita Kumari (2019) [5] < and Maurya et al. (2017). As regards varieties, variety RLC-92 produced significantly highest seed yield, stover yield, biological yield and harvest index, while variety RLC-133 produced significantly lowest seed yield, stover yield and biological yield during both the years and on mean basis. These findings are similar to that of Durgeshwari et al. (2023) [4] , Kumar et al. (2022) [5] , Sahu et al. (2021) [8] and Sahu et al. (2020) [9] .

Conclusion

On the basis of experimental findings, it is concluded that the crop sown in the 1 st week of November and 3 rd week of November both proved superior over December sown crop for seed and stover yield. Variety RLC-92 sown upto 3 rd week of November could be recommended for higher productivity and profitability of linseed for the district of Uttar Bastar, Kanker of Chhattisgarh.

Acknowledgement

AcknowledgementThe authors wish to acknowledge Dr. Deo Shankar (Ex Dean) and Dr. N. K Rastogi, Dean, Ramprasad Potai College of Agriculture & Research Station, Kanker and Dr. M.C. Bhambri, Professor (Agronomy), College of Agriculture, IGKV, Raipur (C.G.) for providing technical guidance and financial support to carry out this research work.

References

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