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Subject: Agronomy × End date: 2006 × Start date: 2006 × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Nutrient source efficiency relations on the productivity of cowpea in summer rice fallows
    (Department of Agronomy, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 2006) Lekha, B. Nair; KAU; Savithri, K V
    A field experiment was conducted in the rice fallows of Agricultural Research Station, Mannuthy, during the summer season (February – April) of 2005, to study the effect of different sources of nitrogen and phosphorus on growth, yield and quality of cowpea and to asses the possibility of reducing the quantity of fertilizers through inoculation of phosphate solubilising bacteria and foliar application of diammonium phosphate. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with seventeen treatments and three replications. The treatments included were, different sources of nitrogen and phosphorus along with or with out phosphate solubilising bacteria inoculation and foliar application two percent diammonium phosphate twice and package of practices recommendation alone. Most of the growth characters, dry matter production, yield and yield attributes and uptake of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and S were higher in the treatments which received nitrogen in the form of urea and phosphorus in the form of rock phosphate. The influence of rock phosphate was more when it was applied along with phosphate solubilising bacteria inoculation. Foliar application of two percent diammonium phosphate at pre flowering and flowering stages increased the growth characters and drymatter production but showed a reduction in yield and yield attributes of cowpea. The protein content of grain and Bhusa was not significantly influenced by various sources of nitrogen and phosphorus, phosphate solubilising bacteria inoculation and foliar spray of two percent diammonium phosophate. None of the treatments could bring about much impact on soil nutrient status. However, complete basal application of nitrogen and phosphorus showed a slightly higher content of N, P, K, Ca, Mg and S over their 50 percent application. Moreover, application of nitrogen as ammonium sulphate resulted in a slightly higher content of sulphur in the soil compared to application of urea. Among the various treatments, considering the growth and yield of cowpea as well as economics, basal application of 50 percent nitrogen as urea and 50 percent phosphorus as rock phosphate along with phosphate solubilising bacteria inoculation and subsequent foliar spray of two percent diammonium phosphate at pre flowering and flowering stages was found to be the best.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Standardisation of System of rice intensification (SRI) technique
    (Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 2006) Rajani Satish, L; KAU; Sheela, K R
    An experiment was conducted at College of Agriculture, Vellayani to compare the performance of rice under SRI and normal system of cultivation and to standardize the seedling age, spacing and weed management for rice under SRI system of cultivation. The investigation was programmed as two experiments, a pot culture trial followed by a field study. The pot culture study to standardize the seedling age under SRI, was laid out in CRD with six treatments and five replications. The treatments included transplanting single seedling of 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 days old. Transplanting 21 day old seedling @ three seedlings hill-1 formed the control. The results of the study revealed that the number of productive tillers were the highest for 12 day old seedlings which contributed to greater yield and this was on par with 14 and 16 day old seedlings. All the treatments were significantly superior to control in grain and straw yield. Based on pot culture study, 12 day old seedlings were selected for field experiment. The field experiment was laid out in factorial RBD with two factors, in nine treatment combinations and a control in three replications. The factors included were three spacings, viz., 20 x 20 cm, 25 x 25 cm and 30 x 30 cm and three weed management practices, namely, hand weeding twice at 20 and 40 DAT, use of pre-emergent herbicide, butachlor @ 1.25 kg ai ha-1 followed by hand weeding, rotary weeding at 10 days interval starting from 10 DAT and a control (transplanting 21 day old seedlings at a spacing of 20 x 10 cm and hand weeded twice at 20 and 40 DAT). Among the different spacings followed, closer spacing of 20 x 20 cm recorded higher growth characters and produced more number of productive tillers hill-1 and per unit area. The closer spacings registered higher grain yield than 30 x 30 cm spacing, though not significant. However, all the SRI treatments registered significantly higher values for growth characters and yield attributes thus resulting in a higher yield compared to control. Among the weed management practices, the use of butachlor followed by hand weeding, recorded better growth attributes and productive tiller count hill-1 thus contributing to a significantly higher grain yield which was on par with hand weeding twice. Though the control plot recorded a significantly lower value for weed parameters during the early stages of observation, at later stages the variation between control and treatments was found insignificant. The nutrient uptake by the crop was the highest at 20 x 20 cm spacing whereas for weeds, 25 x 25 cm spacing recorded higher values. Among the weed management practices, hand weeding twice recorded significantly lower nutrient uptake by weeds. The control plot was superior to other treatment combinations and registered significantly lower nutrient uptake by weeds. The closer spacing of 20 x 20 cm along with the use of herbicide followed by hand weeding resulted in the highest net income and benefit-cost ratio. The net income and benefit-cost ratio in SRI treatments were higher than the control. Compared to the existing method of rice cultivation, SRI treatments showed their superiority in augmenting the grain yield and income.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Agrotechniques for seed production in vegetable cowpea (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis (L) Verdcourt/ var. Sharika
    (College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 2006) Suja, Abraham; KAU; Shahul, Hameed
    A field experiment was conducted in the Instructional Farm of the College of Agriculture, Vellayani during the period extending from first week of January to third week of April 2001 to study the effects of different levels of nitrogen, potassium and spacing on the growth characters, yield and yield attributes, seed characters and seed quantity, nutrient uptake and economics of cultivation for seed production of vegetable cowpea (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis (L.) Verdcourt) var. Sharika. The soil of the experimental site was sandy clay loam in texture, acidic in reaction, low in available nitrogen, medium in available phosphorus and low in available potassium. The treatment consisted of two levels of spacing (S1 – 1 X 0.6m and S2 – 1.5 X 0.6m), three levels of nitrogen (N1 – 30 kg N ha-1, N2 – 45 kg N ha-1and N3 – 60 kg N ha-1) and three levels of potassium (K1 – 10 kg K2O ha-1, K2 – 15 kg K2O ha-1and K3 – 20 kg K2O ha-1). The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design. An abstract of the result is given below. Among the growth characters spacing had a significant effect on DMP,LAI at 30 and 60 DAS and LAD. For all these parameters the highest or the best values were given by the lowest spacing S1 (1 X 0.6m). Nitrogen and potassium were not able to influence any of the growth parameters in a significant way. Among the yield characters spacing was able to make an impact on pods per plant. Here S2 the wider spacing (1.5 X 0.6m) gave a significantly higher value. With regard to the seed characters second level of potassium (K2 – 15 kg K2O ha-1) has significantly influenced the weight of seeds per pod. The first level of spacing S1 (1 X 0.6m) has again influenced the NPK uptake of plants in a statistically significant way. The interaction effect of potassium and spacing had significantly affected the growth character viz. LAI at 30 DAS. The treatment K3S1, i.e. 20 kg K2O ha-1 and 1 X 0.6m spacing was found to be the best among the combinations that influence the leaf area index. The interaction of nitrogen and potassium has significantly influenced another growth character viz. DMP. Here N3K1 i.e. 60 kg N ha-1 and 10 kg K2O ha-1was found to be the best among the treatment combinations. Interaction of nitrogen and potassium also influenced the seed character viz. pod to seed ratio. In this case N1K3 (30 kg N ha-1 and 60 kg K2O ha-1) gave the highest value. The interaction of nitrogen and potassium also significantly influenced the uptake of nitrogen and phosphorus. Both N1K2 (30 kg N ha-1 and 15 kg K2O ha-1) and N3K1 (60 kg N ha-1 and 10 kg K2O ha-1) had influenced the uptake of nitrogen and phosphorus in a significant way. The interaction of nitrogen, potassium and spacing were able to significantly influence the yield character viz. pods per plot. N1K2S1(30 kg N ha-1, 15 kg K2O ha-1 and 1 X 0.6m spacing), N2K1S1 (45 kg N ha-1, 10 kg K2O ha-1 and 1 X 0.6m spacing) were superior with regard to this character. Different levels of nitrogen, potassium, spacing and their interaction did not significantly influence other growth characters like length of vine, number of branches per plant, shoot root ratio, days to 50 per cent flowering, yield characters like weight of dried pods per plant and seed characters like hundred seed weight, seed yield per hectare, germination percentage, vigour index, root length of seedling, dry weight of seedling and seed viability. Maximum profit was obtained (Rs. 117501/-) for the treatment combination N1K2S1 i.e. 30 kg N ha-1, 15 kg K2O ha-1 and 1 X 0.6m spacing.