Influence of Weather Parameters and Thermal Time Approach on Green Gram at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

An investigation was carried out at the Agro Climate Research Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, on the effect of weather parameters on the green gram yield sown at various sowing dates during the rabi season of 2019. At various sowing dates, two green gram cultivars, VBN 4 and ADT 3, were sown. For both cultivars, the phonological crop length decreased with delays in sowing dates beyond October 23rd. The yield of green gram sown on 23rd October was significantly higher than the crops sown on 30th October and 6th November. The weather parameters Maximum Temperature (Tmax), Diurnal Range (Trange), Bright Sunshine Hours (BSS), Relative Humidity (RH I), Wind Speed (WS) were found to be negatively correlated with seed yield whereas Minimum Temperature (Tmin), Relative Humidity (RH II), Vapour Pressure (VP) were found to be positively correlated with the yield of green gram. The accurate prediction of green gram yield could be done with the maximum temperature, bright sunshine hours, wind speed and with thermal indices especially hygrothermal unit II with 82 percent, accuracy level.