EFFECT OF DIFFERENTIAL SPACING ON HIGHER SEED SET IN MONO STEM SESAME (Sesamum indicum) Variety VRI 5

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during 2025 and 2026 to evaluate the effect of plant spacing on yield contributing characters of sesame mono stem variety VRI 5 at Agricultural Research Station, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Bhavanisagar. The experiment was laid out in a Randomised Block Design (RBD) with seven replications. Three plant spacings viz., 10 cm, 15 cm and 20 cm were used as treatments by adopting 20 cm as row spacing along with farmers practice namely broad casting method. Among different plant spacings, wider spacing of 20 x 20 cm showed significantly highest number of capsule per plant (62.86), 1000 seed weight (3.4 g), seed yield per plant (7.30 g) and seed yield per hectare (690 kg) followed by broadcasting method during 2025. Similar trend was obtained during 2026 also showing that, superiority of 20 x 20 cm spacing for higher seed set (708 kg ha-1) in sesame mono stem variety VRI 5 the by registering 7.8% increase when compared to broad casting  method (656 kg ha-1).