Redgram

Crop Establishment

Sowing Cropping System Crop Management

Sowing

  • After the land is ready for sowing, apply the entire dose of fertilizers in the soil and sow the seeds by following the recommended spacing.

Spacing

  • Sowing - 90 or 60 cm x 22.5 cm

In May-June

  • 90 cm from row to row

July Sowing

  • 60 cm from row to row
  • 22.5 cm from seed to seed or plant to plant. Before sowing, treat the seeds with rhizobium or phosphorus solubilizing bacteria.

Seed Treatment

  • Treat one kg of seeds with 2 g captan/thiram before sowing.

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Cropping systems

  • Long duration varieties of pigeonpea engage the field for whole year. These varieties are sown with the onset of monsoon in June-July and are harvested in the month of March and April. Development of short duration varieties of pigeonpea maturing in 130-160 days have made it possible to grow a second crop in sequence during rabi season.
  • These varieties if planted in early part of June are harvested by first week or December. Therefore, several crops like wheat, gram, lentil, sugarcane, etc., may be grown successfully after these varieties of pigeonpea. Rotations adopted with pigeonpea are pigeonpea-wheat, pigeonpea + urdbean-wheat, pigeonpea-wheat, mungbean, pigeonpea-sugarcane, mungbean (summer) + pigeonpea-wheat, and maize pigeonpea (post monsoon).

Mixed/inter cropping

  • Traditional mixing of pigeonpea with maize, sorghum without consideration of planting geometry and space, crops suffer to a great extent and their yields are reduced. Intercropping and parallel multiple cropping is the improvement over mixed cropping where the crops of dissimilar types are grown together in such a way that they do not affect the performance of main crop and there exists zero competition in between main crop and parallel crop. The example of such cropping may be pigeonpea + urdbean or mungbean. The urdbean/mungbean being early maturing, is harvested by the time, the space occupied by it is required for pigeonpea. The pigeonpea is planted at wider row spacing and its growth during early period is very slow.
  • At Pantnagar (UP) experiments were conducted to findout the most suitable parallel crop for short duration pigeonpea and to find out the possibility of increasing the profits by changing the planting patterns. Pigeonpea variety T-21 was planted on June 25 in rows 75 cm apart with a plant spacing of 20 cm and in between two rows of pigeonpea one row of intercrop was planted in one case whereas in another case two rows of inter crop were planted in between the paired rows of pigeonpea. The data on grain yield of pigeonpea and mixed crop as well as net profit under each treatment are presented in Table.
  • The grain yield of pigeonpea was not affected significantly by any of the mixed crops except maize. Two planting methods did not differ significantly. Extra yield of 4 to 7 quintals of grain legumes was obtained without affecting the grain yield of pigeonpea. Yield of maize was 29 to 33 quintals per hectare but it adversely affected the grain yield of pigeonpea, however, net profit with inter cropping of maize was highest followed by normal planting of urd bean.


Treatment
Grain yield (q/ha)
Pigeonpea Intercrops
Pure pigeonpea (N) (T-21) 23.99 -
Pure Pigeonpea (P) 21.86 -
Pigeonpea + Mungbean (N) (T-1) 18.66 3.83
Pigeonpea + Mungbean (P) 19.46 4.63
Pigeonpea _ Urdbean (N) (UPU-1) 24.37 4.58
Pigeonpea + Urdbean (P) 19.99 7.30
Pigeonpea + Cowpea (N) (Pusa Dophash) 20.63 3.78
Pigeonpea + Cowpea (P) 15.03 5.11
Pigeonpea + Soybean (N) (Lee) 18.50 4.79
Pigeonpea + Soybean (P) 21.70 4.39
Pigeonpea + Maize (N) (Dwarf) 15.83 33.19
Pigeonpea + Maize (P) 15.73 29.22
N = Normal rows Intercrops Methods
P = Paired rows 4.37 NS

Intercropping

  • Redgram is intercropped with cereals like maize, sorghum pearl millet and finger millet; pulses like black gram, green and Cowpea; oilseeds like groundnut, sesame and soybean.
  • In intercropping, plant density is very much reduced (ie., 5 plants/m2). In a cereal based intercrop the LER is 1.14 to 1.81. The soybean intercropping reduces Fusarium wilt and pod borer (Helicoverpa armigera) of pigeonpea. Among the intercropping systems, most profitable of them were sorghum + redgram, ragi + redgram, redgram + urd and redgram + groundnut. In a paired row system pigeonpea is spaced 20 cm apart and in the gap of 80 cma, groundnut is sown 10 cm apart.
  • Similarly, in a paired row of red gram (60 cm apart), 6 rows of ragi (30 cm apart) are accommodated in an area of 1.8m. There is a unplanted furrow between the redgram rows. In rice fallows pigeonpea pea + urd or green gram or pigeon pea + groundnut can be taken with advantage.

Sequence cropping

  • The short duration varieties (T21, UPAS 120, ICPL87, Pusa 74, Pusa 84, Manak) made it possible to grow red gram wheat rotation. Red gram is sown by mid-June while wheat sowing is taken by mid-November.
  • In such sequence cropping, yield and red gram was around 2 t/ha while wheat yields were 4 t/ha. Extra short duration varieties (ESD) can mature in 90-100 days and can be sown even in late July. Highest monetary returns were obtained when red gram + urd bean/green gram was followed by wheat in rotation.

Rabi pigeonpea: Post-monsoon sowing

  • Where the winters are mild, red gram is taken after the harvest of maize/rice. Redgram is sown in September with a spacing of 30 x 20 cm (<2 lakh plants/ha) and this is in essence agronomic dwarfing. The yield levels achieved are 3 to 3.5 t/ha.
  • Pigeonpea can also be relay sown 2 to 3 weeks before the harvest of rice/maize/pearl millet. The suitable variety in India is C14.

Summer pigeonpea

  • In this system, redgram + greengram is grown. Redgram is sown in mid-April with a row spacing of 90 cma. Three rows of green gram are intercropped. Greengram is harvested by the end of June and in the vacant land blackgram (T9) is grown in between red gram rows.
  • Blackgram would be harvested by September and redgram would be harvested by mid-November. After the harvest of pigeonpea. Wheat would be sown by November end.

Ratoon cropping

  • Redgram is amenable to multiple harvest. With milder winters as in peninsular India (>10°C) ratoon cropping is a distinct possibility. More stability in production is expected with new genotypes having resistance to sterility mosaic, wilt and pod borer.
  • Multiple harvests are useful in alley cropping. Chauhan (1990) has reported 3.5 to 4.5 t/ha in 3 harvests (32 plants/m+2) in 220 days.

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Crop management

  • Non monetary inputs have vital role to play in pushing up pulses production, these crops are generally cultivated on marginal lands, under poor level of management. Among all non-monetary inputs timely sowing assumes great significance. Early sowing has advantages with regard to larger growing season and better moisture conditions resulting in higher yields.
  • Under rainfed conditions, sowing during may to July is followed depending upon the onset of monsoon. Late seeding causing considerable reduction in yield not only due to photoperiodicity of the crop, but also due to soil moisture stress, which coincides with reproductive growth of late sown crop. Early sowing need wider row spacing of 75 to 90 cm and with delay ins owing row spacing of 60 cm is desired with plant spacing of 20-25 cm.

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Karnataka