Performance of cauliflower under cauliflower-marigold intercropping system
The pooled results presented in Table 1 depicted that sowing dates significantly influenced the plant growth characteristics of cauliflower varieties. The cauliflower varieties sown during second week of May had resulted maximum height (45.48 cm) of the plant followed by plants sown during first week of May and third week of May. The lowest value for plant height was recorded in first week of June sown plants (30.17 cm). The cauliflower variety Monsoon Queen recorded maximum plant height (38.82 cm) followed by White Pearl, BN 50 and White Treasure. The combined effect of sowing dates and varieties on plant height revealed significant effect. The cauliflower variety Monsoon Queen sown during second week of May recorded the maximum plant height (47.40 cm). The results also revealed the significant effect of sowing dates on plant spread of cauliflower varieties. The maximum plant spread of 35.95 cm had been recorded in the plants sown during second week of May. The plants sown during first week of June registered lowest values of plant spread (22.92 cm). This might be due to the congenial growing condition prevailing during the month of May onwards for growth and development of early cauliflower, which promoted more vegetative growth in second week of May sown plants. The May sown plants were transplanted in polyhouse in the month of June. Similar result was also reported in early cauliflower variety Pusa Himjyoti (
Thakur, 2015). Among the four cauliflower varieties, significantly higher value of plant spread (31.04 cm) was recorded in Monsoon Queen. Significant interaction effect of sowing dates and varieties was also observed for plant spread. The maximum plant spread (36.83 cm) was noted in second week of May sown plant in the variety Monsoon Queen.The results also revealed significant effect of sowing dates on number of leaves of the plant (Table 1). The highest number of leaves (11.57) had been recorded for second week of May sown plants. Cauliflower sown during the month of May produced maximum number of leaves was also reported from plains of Bangladesh
(Ara et al., 2009). The results are also in the line of the findings of
Halim et al., (1999). The cauliflower variety Monsoon Queen recorded the highest values for number of leaves (11.51) as compared to the other varieties. Significant interaction effect of sowing dates and variety was recorded for number of leaves, where higher value for number of leaves (13.50) was recorded for second week of May sown plant in variety Monsoon Queen (Table 1). The genotypic differences existed within the early cauliflower varieties and that might be responsible for variation in plant growth characteristics
(Sandhu et al., 2024).
Main and interaction effect of sowing dates as wellas varieties on curd parameters were studied (Table 1). There was a significant main and interaction effect of sowing dates and varieties recorded on days taken to curd initiation and curd maturity of cauliflower. The plants sown during first week of May registered minimum days required to curd initiation (47.09 DAS) and curd maturity (60.97 DAS). While, the maximum days taken to curd initiation and curd maturity was recorded from first week of June sown plants. The cauliflower variety White Pearl took minimum days to curd initiation (47.84 DAS) as well as curd maturity (61.60 DAS). The results also revealed the significant effect of sowing dates on curd initiation and maturity of cauliflowers. The cauliflower variety White Pearl when sown during first week of May recorded minimum days to curd initiation (45.80 DAS) and curd maturity (59.67 DAS). The results are in accordance with the finding of
Chatterjee and Mahanta (2013). The yield attributing parameters like curd diameter, stalk length, gross plant weight and net curd weight of cauliflower were significantly affected by the sowing dates and varieties. The plants sown during second week of May had resulted curd with maximum diameter (11.83 cm), stalk length (2.38 cm), gross plant weight (1.34 kg) and net curd weight (396.48 g). The May sown cauliflower plant might undergone through a favourable atmospheric condition under shade net condition during the entire growth and development process and resulted maximum yield during May sown cauliflowers. While, the raising of atmospheric temperature from end of May might had a negative impact on plant growth and development and that might be responsible for poor yield in June sown cauliflowers. Cauliflower is known as highly thermo-sensitive cole crop
(Singh et al., 2018). The vegetative and curd development phases significantly influenced by variations in atmospheric temperature
(Rahman et al., 2013). The ideal time for production of early cauliflower in
terai belt is reported to be in the month of May (
Chatterjee and Mahanta, 2013). These results are also in close conformity with the findings of
Singh et al., (2015) and
Buragohain et al., (2024) on early cauliflower. All these parameters except stalk length were registered lowest in the plants sown during first week of June. The cauliflower variety Monsoon Queen performed best regarding curd diameter (10.64 cm), stalk length (2.15 cm), gross plant weight (1.26 kg) and net curd weight (395.45 g). Significant interaction effects of sowing dates and variety were also found for stalk length, gross plant weight and net curd weight. While, interaction between sowing dates and variety failed to influence any significant effect on curd diameter (Table 1).
The highest curd yield (6.34 kgplot-1;7.93 tha
-1) was recorded from the plants sown during second week of May (Fig 1A) followed by the plants sown inthird week of May (6.04 kg plot
-1; 7.55 tha
-1). The lowest yield of curds was noted in plants sown during first week of June. Utilization of significant land area by the intercrop marigold might be responsible for a lower unit yield of cauliflower as compared to cauliflower monocropping.The results are in accordance with the findings of
Agrawal et al., (2011). The variety Monsoon Queen exhibited the highest curd yield (6.33 kg plot
-1; 7.91 t ha
-1) followed by White Pearl (Fig 2B). The interaction effect of curd yield was also recorded to be significant and found that the variety Monsoon Queen sown during second week of May resulted the highest curd yield (6.61 kg plot
-1; 8.27 t ha
-1) (Table 2). A high degree of variations on yield characteristics in early cauliflower varieties is also reported earlier
(Sandhu et al., 2024).
Performance of marigold under cauliflower-marigold intercropping system
The pooled data presented in Table 3 indicated that the sowing dates significantly affected the plant growth and yield of marigold cv. Pusa Narangi. The first week of June sown marigold exhibited maximum height (59.67 cm), spread (46.83 cm) and branch plant-1 (25.0). Similar trend was also noted for yield parameters of marigold. The maximum flower diameter (5.08 cm), flower plant-1 (35.33), flower yield (404.33 g plant
-1; 39.81 q ha
-1) were registered in the plants sown during first week of June. All the parameters related to growth and yield of marigold were recorded minimum in second week of April sown plants. The second week of May sown marigold yielded 34.04 q ha
-1 flowers. Marigold can be cultivated throughout the year
(Kumar et al., 2019). In this experiment, the marigold bloomed with early-cauliflower intercropping during summer to rainy season. The results are in agreement with the findings of
Kumar and Kumar (2017) and
Kumar et al., (2012) in summer and rainy season marigold cv. Pusa Narangi, respectively.
Economics of cauliflower-marigold intercropping system
The economics cauliflower-marigold intercropping system was calculated only for the second week of May sown cauliflower (Table 4). Since, this period was found to be the best for sowing of early season cauliflower in this
terai belt of West Bengal. The production cost of early cauliflower varied between Rs. 92942.00-92359.00/-. Similar production cost of cauliflower required in a medium to marginal farmis also reported by
Kumari et al., (2021). Rupees 38042.00/- was required for theproduction of marigold. The amount spent for cultivation of marigold is following the similar trend as reported by
Majumder et al., (2025). The total cost of production (cauliflowerand marigold) varied from Rs. 130984.00 to 130401.00/-. The total gross income of the early cauliflower-marigold intercropping was calculated as Rs. 381860.00 to 356660.00 in different cultivars of cauliflower. The net return of this intercropping system was near about double from production cost. The benefit: cost ratio of the early cauliflower-marigold intercropping system varied between 2.90-2.72. The results are inconformity with the economic analysis of cauliflower-marigold intercropping system as reported by
Ojha and Singh (2003) and
Mondal et al., (2018) in different parts of India.