376 Indian J. Hort. 73(3), September 2016: 376-382 INTRODUCTION Sprouting broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica L.), a member of cole group, is considered as minor vegetable crop. However, its cultivation is now gaining popularity with Indian growers for the last couple of years due to increasing awareness of its high nutritive values and tourist inlux. To stabilize crop production and to provide insurance mechanism against aberrant weather situation characterizing rainfed agriculture, intercropping could be a viable agronomic means of risk minimizing farmers proit and subsistence- oriented, energy-eficient and sustainable venture. Growing of two or more different crops on the same piece of land during the same cropping season interacts agronomically by Faroda et al . (4). It is well established that plant spacing has signiicant inluence on growth and yield of the broccoli. Optimal plant spacing is important for crop production through efficient utilization of nutrients, water and light by the plants. In general, higher plant population adversely affects the yield per unit area, hampering the vegetative and reproductive growth of plant. Paired row planting (30/60 x 45 cm) may facilitate the growing of intercrops like fenugreek, coriander, beet leaf and radish in broccoli because the space available between rows of main crop is more than available in normal row spacing, i.e., 45 × 45 cm. Moreover, intercropping offers to the farmers an early income from the annual vegetable intercrops before the main crop is harvested (Olubode et al., 8). Organic vegetable cultivation offers one of the most sustainable farming systems with recurring beneits to only long term soil health, but provides a lasting stability in production by importing better resistance against various biotic and abiotic stresses (Jigme et al ., 5). Moreover, it provides several social, economic and environmental beneits to the society by way of producing chemical-free safe, nutritive and health protective food for the people, and replacing the dangerous agro-chemicals from the face of earth. Further, the organic manures, can serve as alternative practice in place of fertilizers for improving soil structure, microbial biomass, minimizing global warming and producing quality crop yield. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was conducted at the research farm and laboratory of Department of Vegetable Science, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar during winter season of the 2013-14. Hot and dry winds during summer and dry severe cold in winter are common features of this region. The experiment was laid out in split plot design replicated thrice Growth, yield and quality response of organic broccoli to intercrops and crop geometry Lalu Prasad Yadav * , Avtar Singh and S.K. Malhotra ** Department of Horticulture, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar 125004 ABSTRACT A ield experiment was conducted to evaluate the eficacy of intercropping and crop geometry in organic production of broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) during winter season of the year 2013-2014. The experiment was laid out in split plot design replicated thrice with three different organic manures and two spacings as main plot treatments and ive intercrops. Among the 30 treatment combinations, application of vermicompost coupled with single row spacing and sole crop of broccoli (M 2 S 1 C 1 ) reordered the maximum values in terms of number of leaves (28.6), weight of main head (203.3 g), head girth (15.2 cm), number of sprouts per plant (9.9), yield of sprouts per plant (407.6 g), yield of sprouts/ plant (main head + sprouts) per plant (610.9 g), total yield per ha (301.7 q), vitamin A (14.43 mg/100 g) and vitamin C (96.80 mg/100 g) signiicantly, while plant height (63.9 cm) was recorded maximum in the treatment M 2 S 2 C 1 , whereas yield of intercrop per ha (134.9 q) was recorded maximum in the M 2 S 2 C 5 treatment. Amongst the intercropping treatments, broccoli + fenugreek along with vermicompost application following the spacing of 45 x 45 cm (M 2 S 1 C 4 ) recorded the highest growth and yield attributing characters except number of sprouts per plant, which was found signiicantly better in the treatment (M 2 S 1 C 3 ). Key words: Organic broccoli, intercropping, plant spacing. *Corresponding author’s present address: Central Horticultural Experiment Station (ICAR-CIAH), Vejalpur 389340, Gujarat **Horticulture Commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture, DAC, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi 110001 DOI : 10.5958/0974-0112.2016.00080.3