Late sowing of beans is not recommended; however, this procedure can prove to be useful to increase productivity to farmer beans of the Santa Catarina plateau. An experiment was carried out in Lages, SC, in 1993/94 and 1994/95 growing season with the objective to evaluate the performance of bean cultivars sowed late in the season. Eight cultivars, six of which belong to black beans group and two to "carioca" bean cultivars were sowing in November (recommended period) December and January. The experimental design was a factorial 2 x 3 x 8 (year x season of sowing x cultivar) in a completely randomized block, design with four repetitions. The crop growing and period of emergency-blossom was affected by later sowing. Yield components: number of pods per plant and seeds per pod, 1000 seed weight, and grain yield were significantly affected by later sowing. The grain yield was reduced by 24.6% and 56.7% in whem sowed December and January to November sowing. Therefore, the grain yield was reduced in 0.95% to each day of late sowing. The results support the idea that the grain yield of bean cultivars are affected by the later sowing in the Santa Catarina plateau. The practice of late sowing has to be established by recommendation to each cultivars and crop management.
sowing date; grain yield; Phaseolus vulgaris
