Effect of Soil Types on Phenology and Heat Units of Quinoa

Background: Quinoa, a promising pseudocereal crop has superior nutritional profile and able to withstand wide range of biotic and abiotic stresses. Understanding the effect of different soil types on phenology and heat units is important in new crop like quinoa. Therefore, in this investigation, different soil types that widely dispersed around Coimbatore were used to evaluate the performance of quinoa on its phenology and further heat units. Methods: Pot experiment was carried out in the Department of Agronomy, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore during Kharif 2022 season. Eight soil types were collected from different areas around Coimbatore and tested in completely randomized design with three replications. Development of phonological stages were noted and in turn calculated heat units by using standard formulae. Result: Results of the investigation revealed that clay loam textured Ooty soils took maximum days to attain four phenological stages, viz., branching, panicle initiation, flowering and physiological maturity of quinoa than other soils. Similarly, more heat units (Growing Degree Days, Helio Thermal Units, Photo Thermal Units and Relative Temperature Disparity) were recorded with the soils collected from Ooty when compared to other soils. Sandy loam soils of Mettupalayam registered the least number of days to attain different developmental stages and also recorded the lowest heat units of quinoa. Based on the above results, it can be concluded that among eight different soils, the growth of quinoa was prolonged in clay loam textured Ooty soils and correlation with yield indicated that extending duration enhanced the yield.