Agrometeorological Indices Influenced by Varying Planting Windows and Varieties of Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) in Maharashtra, India

An experiment was carried out at the Faculty of Agriculture Department of Agricultural Meteorology Farm, Centre for Advanced Agricultural Meteorology,College of Agriculture, Pune during Kharif seasons of 2014 and 2015.The experiment was laid out a split plot design with three replications.The treatment comprised of three brinjal hybrids viz.,V1:Phule Arjun, V2: Krishna, V3: Panchganaga as main plot and four planting windows viz., P1: 31st MW (30 July-5 August), P2: 32ndMW (6-12August), P3:33rdMW (13-19 August) and P4: 34thMW (20-26 August) as subplot treatments. Micrometeorological studies of Cumulative GDD, HTU, and PTU at the end of each growth stage showed that the numerically higher requirement was observed in hy.Phule Arjun over hy.Krishna and hy.Panchganga hybrids during both the years 2014 and 2015 experimentation period.Whereas, the lowest canopy temperature was found in hy.Phule Arjun (29.0 0C) than the rest of the brinjal hybrids. Canopy reflected PAR and transmitted PAR was higher in (191.54 and 188.62 µ mol m-2s-1) Panchganaga hybrids among the brinjal hybrids. Amongst all the brinjal hybrids, Phule Arjun hybrids were found significantly superior under extended planting windows followed by Krishna and Panchganga. Planting during 31st MW (1st week of August) was observed to be most suitable and optimum for brinjal considering the growth and yield attributes. This planting window was at par with the 32nd MW planting window. Linear correlation analysis for brinjal fruit yield with weather parameters was significantly positively correlated with maximum temperature and minimum temperature.