By P.M. Ramesh, A.A. Farooqi & Amit Agarwal.

The experiment was conducted in Horticulture Research Station, GKVK, Bangalore in 1993-94. The soil condition was red sandy loam soil. The crops were supplied with 75 Kg P2O5 and 50 Kg K2O per hectare and cultural operations like irrigation, weeding, etc. attended regularly.

Two conditions were taken – 4 sowing dates with one-month gap and 3 spacing i.e. 15cm×15cm, 30cm×30cm, and 30cm×15cm.

Experiment showed that the crop sown on 1st June recorded highest fresh and dry herbage yield per plant (15.6g & 8.81 g) and the andrographolide content was (4.6%) than the subsequent months sowings. If the plants were spaced 30cm×30cm then we get the highest fresh & dry herbage yield per plant (10.17g & 5.26g).

The interactions of 1st June sowing & 30cm×30cm spacing recorded highest fresh & dry herbage yield per plant (17.8g & 10.50g) while interaction of 1st June with 15cm×15cm spacing was responsible for highest fresh & dry herbage yield per plot (473.05 & 291.37) The increase in the growth of the [plant sown in 1st June might be attributed to the favourable weather condition prevailing during the crop growth which might influence the plant to put on the maximum growth.

This type of trend might be attributed to the increased plant height, plant spread, greater number of branches and leaves which in turn might have contributed to higher yield of herbage produced by the plants.

The sowing on 1st June also significantly influenced the production of andrographolide. This difference in andrographolide in the plants collected from different parts of Asia including India is due to the environment and genotype influence on production of active principle.

The widely spaced plants recorded the maximum fresh & dry herbage yield per plant, which is due to effective utilization of light, moisture and nutrients by the plants.

Above all it is concluded that in order to obtain the maximum growth and herbage yield, the crop is to be planted during 1st week of June following 15cm×15cm spacing.

(Source: Management of MFP for Sustainability by SHIVA & MATHUR)