Effect of harvesting stages on seed quality of soybean (Glycine max L.) Varieties

The present investigation was conducted at the Instructional Farm, College of Agriculture, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh during kharif-2018, with an aim to study the effect of harvesting stages (H1=One pod mature in plant, H2=Physiological maturity, H3=One week after physiological maturity, and H4=Two weeks after physiological maturity) on seed quality in different soybean varieties (V1=GS-1, V2=GS-2 and V3=GJS-3) in the field condition. The experiment was laid out in field as per Randomized Block Design (Factorial) with three replications. The characters viz., fresh weight of hundred pods (g), dry weight of hundred pods (g), fresh weight of hundred seeds (g) and dry weight of hundred seeds (g) were recorded in the field. The experimental results revealed that irrespective of varieties, significantly the highest (36.11 g and 10.04 g) and the lowest (22.36 g and 7.02 g) dry weight of hundred pods and seeds were recorded in H2 (Physiological maturity) and H1 (One pod mature in plant) harvesting stages, respectively. Fresh and dry weight of pods were decreased significantly with advance in maturity, while dry weight of seeds and pods were increased up to physiological maturity and then decreased.