Effect of staggered sowing and split application of nitrogen in seed production of pearl millet hybrid MH-946

A field experiment was carried out during Kharif 2011 at the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Bijapur, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad to investigate the effect of staggered planting and split application of N on  synchronization of male and female parents of pearl millet hybrid MH-946 (GHB-558). The experiment comprised of twenty treatments with three replications in split plot design. The results revealed that sowing of male parent by 8 days earlier to female with 50% N at the time of sowing + 25% N at 25 DAS + 25% N at 35 DAS recorded less number of days for 50 per cent flowering in male (52.0 days) and female (51.3 days) and also recorded higher plant height (182.4 cm), ear length (19.0 cm), ear diameter (3.0 cm), ear weight per plant (28.3 g), number of seeds per ear (2658.0 seeds), seed weight per ear (21.0 g), seed set per cent (91.6 %) and 1000 seed weight (11.2 g) which resulted in increased value compared to other treatments.