Effect of sowing date on yield, yield components, secondary metabolites content and weed control in ajwain and isabgol intercropping

This experiment was conducted to examine the effect of sowing date and different combinations of ajwain and isabgol intercropping on the grain yield, yield components, ajwain essential oil yield, weed control, and the mucilage percent of isabgol as split plot based on RCBD with three replications in Zabol University research farm in 2013. The main factors included two sowing dates of January 09 and February 08. The six additive cropping patterns including sole cropping of ajwain, sole cropping of isabgol, 25% isabgol 100% ajwain, 50% isabgol 100% ajwain, 75% isabgol 100% ajwain, 100% isabgol 100% ajwain comprising subplot. The results revealed that delayed sowing led to significant increase in ajwain essential oil percentage, however, seed and biological yield, essential oil yield and 1000-seed weight of ajwain decreased by 12.31, 13.7, 0.5 and 35.1%, respectively. In addition, sowing delaying did not have significantly impact on grain and biological yield of isabgol. Intercropping patterns significantly reduced yield and yield components of both crops. The highest seed yield of ajwain (2309 kg.ha-1) and isabgol (539 kg.ha-1) were obtained in sole cropping. The lowest dry weight of weeds was obtained from the planting date of January and cropping pattern of 100% isabgol 100% ajwain. The highest LER was observed in cropping patterns of 50 and 75 of isabgol 100% ajwain, that it is indicated yield advantage in intercropping over monocropping.