Optimizing Sowing Date for French bean Varieties under Bangladesh Condition

An experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University to determine the optimum sowing date for selected French bean varieties under Bangladesh condition. The experiment consisted of two factors namely; (i) variety viz. BARI Jhar Sheem-1, BARI Jhar Sheem-2 and BARI Jhar Sheem-3, and (ii) sowing date viz. 5 November, 20 November and 5 December. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. Variety and sowing date showed significant effect on most of the plant characters viz. plant height, leaf area plant-1, number of pods plant-1, number of seeds pod-1, number of seeds plant-1, weight of seeds plant-1, weight of 1000 seeds, seed yield and stover yield. The highest seed yield (0.66 t ha-1) was obtained from BARI Jhar Sheem-3 and the lowest (0.46 t ha-1) was obtained from both BARI Jhar Sheem-1 and BARI Jhar Sheem-2. The highest seed yield (0.65 t ha-1) was obtained from 20 November sowing and the lowest one (0.36 t ha-1) was obtained from 5 November sowing. The interaction between variety and sowing date had significant influence on the yield contributing characters and yield of French bean. Results showed that the yield contributing characters and yield of French bean varieties were increased with sowing on 20 November and decreased with very early or late sowing. BARI Jhar Sheem-3 produced the highest seed yield (0.76 t ha-1) when sown on 20 November compared to very early or late sowing condition.