Keywords: Sowing time, balanced fertilization, productivity, mustard

A study was conducted in the Agronomy Farm, IAAS, Rampur, Chitwan during the winter season of 2001/2002 with the objective to test the effect of sowing dates and fertilizers to the yield of ‘Pusa Bold’ variety of mustard (Brassica juncea L. Czern. and Coss.). Accordingly, split plot design was used with three seeding dates (15^th Oct.; 1^st Nov. and 15^th Nov.) as main plots, and six levels of nutrients combinations (F₀- Control; F₁- FYM @ 6mt/ha; F₂- 30:20:10kg NPK/ha (50% of recommended NPK) + FYM @ 3mt/ha; F₃ – 45:30:15 kg NPK/ha (75% of recommended NPK) + FYM @ 1.5mt/ha; F₄ - 60:40:20kg NPK/ha (100% recommended NPK), and F₅- 90:60:30kg NPK/ha (150% of recommended NPK). The initial fertility status of the experimental soil had the sandy loam (63.22% sand; 28.31% silt and 8.46% clay) soil texture, acidic (pH-5.9) reaction, low (0.197%) nitrogen content, medium phosphorus (29.34kg/ha) and potassium (75.83kg/ha) and percentage organic carbon (2.15%). Sulphur @ 40kg/ha was applied to all treatments for balanced sulphur nutrition through elemental sulphur. Various growth and yield attributes were determined. The result revealed that October 15 was significantly better than the other sowing dates for several traits measured, whereas each seeding date from October 15 to November 15 exhibited 524.59%, 980.2% and 717.45% higher yield over the control at 150% recommended level of NPK, respectively. The benefit: cost ratio indicated that sowing mustard on 15th October with 60:40:20 kg/ha NPK (1.33) and 90:60:30 kg/ha NPK (1.46) showed significantly higher profit compared to the other treatment combinations.