A field experiment was conducted at BCKV during Rabi, 2018-19 and 2019-20 to study the effect of Zn, Fe and B foliar spray on phenology and thermal indices of popular lentil variety, Moitree (WBL 77) under different sowing condition [1st week of November (normal) and 1st week of December (late)]. Delay in sowing of crop from November to December reduced the crop duration by 11.4 days (113.4 days vs 101.7 days). The variation in mean daily temperature and bright sunshine hour among two sowing dates resulted in varied accumulated Growing Degree Days (GDD), Helio Thermal Units (HTU) as well as Photo Thermal Unit (PTU). It was found that different dates of sowing have a larger impact on change in phenology of the crop and thus affect various thermal indices. Foliar spraying of micronutrients viz., B + Fe @ 0.5% produced significantly higher seed and stover yield of 1438 kg ha-1 and 3981 kg ha-1 respectively, which were 86.26% and 27.0% more than that obtained from the control treatment (772 and 3134 kg ha-1). The study conducted revealed that along with optimum date of sowing, spraying micronutrients especially a mixture of [email protected] % and [email protected] % could also bring in change of phenology to some extent. This may help in better accumulation of photosynthate hence, improving the yield responses of lentil.
