OPTIMUM TIME FOR NURSERY SEEDING AND SPACING FOR RAIN-FED FINGER MILLET (ELEUSINE-CORACANA)

An experiment was conducted during 1985-87 at Kanke, to find out the effect of normal and late-nursery seeding of finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.] with normal and late transplanting under different inter (20, 30 and 40 cm)- and intra-row spacings (10, 15 and 20 cm). Delayed nursery seeding and transplanting by 20 days reduced the yield from 0-46.8%, depending on the rainfall. Under normal seeding and transplanting, the highest yields were obtained with narrower (20 cm) inter-row and wider (20 cm) intra-row spacings, whereas under late-nursery seeding and transplanting, the narrower inter-row (20 cm) as well as intra-row (10 cm) spacings were optimum for higher yield.