EFFECT OF SEED RATES ON GROWTH YIELDS AND BIOCHEMICALS PARAMETER OF BUCKWHEAT

Abstract

Buckwheat is a medicinal plant whose seedlings contain numerous vitamin C and grains that have complete protein and other micro and macronutrients. The study was carried out to investigate the effect of seeding rate on growth, yield and biochemical parameters of buckwheat and to find out the suitable seeding rate for the farmer’s field. The experiment was divided into four groups viz 10 (T1), 20 (T2), 30 (T0), 40 (T3), and 50 (T4) kg ha-1 in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Yield growth characteristics like plant height (cm), branches and sub-branches per plant, root length (cm), number of inflorescences and number of clusters per plant, number of grains per cluster, grain yield per plot, etc. were significantly affected by seed rates. A low seeding rate results in increased uptake of light, water, air, nutrition, and NPK. Due to the higher uptake of NPK in low-seed plants, they had higher activities of antioxidant enzymes than high-seeding rates plants. Plants with low seeding rates may have lower levels of hydrogen peroxide due to increased levels of the hydrogen peroxide scavenging enzymes catalase, peroxidase, and ascorbate peroxidase. Low-seeded plants have high-yield traits, but optimum seeding rates result in higher yields due to optimum plant numbers. The highest grain yield was 648 grams in 20 kg ha-1 seed rate plots (T2) and the lowest was 304 grams in 50 kg ha-1 seed rate plots (T4). A comparison of yields from 20 kg ha 1seed rate (T2) to 30 kg ha-1 (T0) and 40 kg ha-1 (T3) shows that the yield decreased due to yield contributing factors. An optimum seed rate of 20 kg ha-1 (T2) was identified with the highest yield of 648 g per 8-meter square plot. Therefore, a seed rate of 20 kg ha-1 showed a significant effect on growth, yield and the biochemical properties of buckwheat.