Effect of crop geometry on yield and quality of seed and essential oil of dill (Anethum sowa)

Dill has been identified as an important spice crop having tremendous medicinal properties and has ubiquitous use in many types of industries like essential oils, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, perfumery etc. There is entire scope to work on standardize yield and quality attributing character of dill. Following the objective of optimizing plant spacing to optimize the yield of quality seeds and essential oil, the present investigation was made out with the variety SSK, sown at nine different spacing viz. 60x15cm, 60x20cm, 60x25cm, 45x15cm, 45x20cm, 45x25cm, 30x15cm, 30x20cm and 30x25cm. The maximum plant height was observed with 30x15cm, whereas higher number of branches was found with 60x25cm. The spacing 45x20 cm yielded plant with highest umbels –1 plant (139.84), umbelletes umbel (35.98), flowers umbel (716.65) and seed setting percentage (93.56). The highest -1 production of seed (698.56kg ha ), essential oil (6.21%) and B:C ratio (1.81:1) was also found superior with the same spacing. The results from the investigation revealed that the spacing 45x20cm promotes the penetration of required sunlight inside the crop canopy and also encourages a crop competition which ends with a sustainable yield of seed and essential oil with higher return. 2