Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during kharif 2015 at Agricultural College Farm, Bapatla on sandy loam
soil to study the phenology, accumulated growing degree days, photo thermal unit, helio-thermal unit, heat use
efficiency and performance of fingermillet varieties grown under different sowing dates. The crop was sown on
2
nd fortnight of July took maximum calendar days, growing degree days, photo thermal unit, helio-thermal unit
to attend different phonological stages till maturity. The genotype sown on 2nd fortnight of July (D2) growth
and yielded higher. The highest drymatter (3665kg ha-1
) at harvest and grain yield (2305 kg ha-1
) was recorded
with (D2) 2nd fortnight of July sowing. Among the varieties Chaitanya took highest calendar days growing
degree days, photo thermal unit, helio-thermal unit to reach the maturity. The variety Chaitanya recorded the
highest grain yield at 2nd fortnight of July sowing as compared to all other sowing dates.