Keywords: Arkel, time of sowing, row spacing, pea seed yield, pea seed quality

A study was conducted to generate information on appropriate spacing and date of sowing for qualitative seed production of Arkel variety of pea under Rampur condition during winter season of 2002. The field experiment was conducted at the Horticulture Farm of Rampur Campus in a factorial randomized complete blocks design with three replications. The treatments consisted of four dates of sowing (i.e. 7^th October, 22^nd October, 6^th November and 21^st November ) and three levels of row to row spacing (i.e. 15 x 15 cm, 30 x 15 cm and 45 x 15 cm). The highest number of pods per plant (11.41) was exhibited by 6^th November sown crop. Early sown crop (7^th October) took longer period (158.19 days) for seed maturity and tt showed decreasing trend as sowing was delayed. Higher seed yield per plant (10.089 gm) was produced from November 6 sown crop. Similar trend was shown in case of number of seeds per pod. The highest grain yield (1.835 ton/ha) was obtained from November 6 sowing, which was 48.55%, 6.53% and 17.85% higher than 7^th October, 22^nd October and 21^st November sowings, respectively. Similar trend was seen in total biological yield, straw yield and 1000 grain weight. The highest germination (88.22%) was recorded in the seed obtained from 6^th November sown crop, where as the lowest germination (77.50%) recorded on 21^st November sown crop. Among row spacing, number of branches per plant, number of pods per plant, seed yield per plant, number of seed per pod and 1000 seed weight were the highest at wider spacing (45 cm) as compared to closer spacing (15 cm). Closer spacing (15 cm) produced the highest seed yield (1.72 ton/ha) followed by 30 cm spacing (1.492 ton/ha) and 45 cm spacing (1.28 ton/ha). The highest germination (84.29%) was recorded in the seed obtained from 45 cm spacing and the lowest germination (80.00%) from 15 cm spacing. Although the interactive effect was not significant, sowing on 6^th November at 15 cm row spacing gave the highest seed yield (2.173 ton/ha) with satisfactory level of seed qualities (i.e. 1000 seed weight was 173.5 gm and seed germination was 85%).