~ 2507 ~ International Journal of Chemical Studies 2021 9(1): 2507-2510 P-ISSN: 2349–8528 E-ISSN: 2321–4902 www.chemijournal.com IJCS 2021; 9(1): 2507-2510 © 2021 IJCS Received: 14-11-2020 Accepted: 23-12-2020 Dr. Vijaya Geetha V Assistant Professor, Oilseeds Research Station, TNAU, Tindivanam, Tamil Nadu, India PC Prabu Assistant Professor, Oilseeds Research Station, TNAU, Tindivanam, Tamil Nadu, India S Thiruvarassan Assistant Professor, Oilseeds Research Station, TNAU, Tindivanam, Tamil Nadu, India M Bhaskaran Professor and Head, Rice Research Station, TNAU, Tirur, Tamil Nadu, India Corresponding Author: Dr. Vijaya Geetha V Assistant Professor, Oilseeds Research Station, TNAU, Tindivanam, Tamil Nadu, India Evaluation of single pod sowing in groundnut Dr. Vijaya Geetha V, PC Prabu, S Thiruvarassan and M Bhaskaran DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/chemi.2021.v9.i1ai.11606 Abstract In groundnut, the coverage of area by a particular variety is very poor compared to cereals, this is mainly due to non-availability of quality seeds at the time of sowing. The formation of single pods is inevitable one. To utilize the single pods as such without decorticating, it can reduce shelling cost and meet out the demand of the crop at needy time. The present investigation has been formulated and conducted at Oilseeds Research Station, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Tindivanam during January 2018 with the six different soaking treatments viz., soaking of single pods for 5 hrs, 10 hrs, 15 hrs, 20 hrs, sowing of dry pods as such and kernel sowing as control in two varieties TMV 13 and VRI 7. From the above treatments irrespective of varieties, the results of 20 hrs soaked seeds is on par with kernel sowing in number of days to emergence (5 days), days to initial (26 days)and 50% flowering (33.5 days) flowering and in all yield parameters including No. of pegs/plant (32.7 for kernel sowing and 31.8 for 20 hrs soaked pods), No. of pods/ plant (27.3 for kernel sowing and 26.7 for 20 hrs soaked pods), 100 seed weight (45.3 for kernel sowing and 45.0 for 20 hrs soaked pods) and seed yield/ha (1904 for kernel sowing and 1858 for 20 hrs soaked pods). Keywords: Groundnut, pod sowing, single pod, soaking of pods, whole pod sowing Introduction Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) is an important leguminous oilseed crop and generally called as poor man’s nut. Groundnut seed contains 44 to 56% oil and 22 to 30% protein on dry seed basis and is a rich source of minerals (P, Ca, mg and K) and vitamins (James et al., 2014) [8] . It is also called as peanut, monkey nut and goober nut. It is a unique crop, matching the attributes for both legume and oilseed crop. Groundnut is one of the principal economic plants as a resource for edible oil and protein. It is the world’s 13th most important food crop, 4th most important source of edible oil and 3rd most important source of vegetable protein. In single groundnut plant at least there will be 4-5 single pods. In one hectare 250-300 kg of single pods could be separated. These single pods will escape in all types of decorticators and collected as such along with shelled seeds. Those single pods has to be collected separately and it should be unshelled manually i.e. by traditional method (pressing it in between thumb and finger). The above said process requires more labour and cost. As there will be more demand for this seed during seasons all the farmers and stakeholders are indeed to unshell the single pods manually and use it wisely to overcome the short fall in seed requirement. One more necessary for proposing the project is during breeder production the single pod will be rejected as it is missing some genetic characters like pod constriction, Pod reticulation (venation, ribbing, ridging) on the shell are the prominent Visual characteristic exhibited differently by groundnut cultivars. Hence the single pods will not fit into the above said genetic characters and their by the single pods will be rejected automatically. Hence with the aim of reducing the labour and cost and also effectively utilise the single pods produced, those single pods are sown as such in the field. Pod-sowing is an important technology in peanut cultivation and is widely used in southern and northern China (Yu, 2004; Chen et al., 2009; Chang et al., 2013) [14, 5, 3] . In the peanut producing areas of north China, there are droughts in spring, making it difficult for peanuts to germinate in the suitable season. If farmers wait for a spring rain, then they miss the best time for peanut cultivation. However, the use of pod-sowing and mulching film technology alleviates issues of low temperature and drought, conditions that are not suitable for planting (Fu, 2009; Na, 2010) [6, 10] . In the peanut producing areas of south China, it is cold and rainy in spring, resulting in peanut seeds becoming mildewed and rotting in the soil, which reduces peanut yield significantly.