PERFORMANCE OF BABY CORN AS INFLUENCED BY SPACING AND NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT
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Date
2018
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AAU, Jorhat
Abstract
A field experiment entitled “Performance of baby corn as influenced by spacing and nutrient management” was conducted at Instructional-cum-Research (ICR) Farm, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat during the summer season, 2017 to find out the effect of spacing on production of baby corn and to study the performance of baby corn under different nutrient management practices. The experiment was laid out in split-plot design and replicated thrice. The treatments consisted of four spacing viz., 40 cm x 20 cm (S1), 40 cm x 25 cm (S2), 45 cm x 20 cm (S3) and 45 cm x 25 cm (S4) in main plot and three nutrient management practices viz., 120-60-60 N-P2O5-K2O (kg/ha) (I1), 75% of N of I1 + 25% N replaced by VC (I2) and 50% of N of I1 + 50% N replaced by VC (I3) in sub-plot. The baby corn variety VL-78 was sown on 7th March, 2017. The soil of experimental site was sandy loam in texture, acidic in reaction, medium in organic carbon (0.72%), low in available N (224.12 kg/ha) and medium in available P2O5 (24.48 kg/ha) and K2O (161.32 kg/ha). Experimental findings revealed that spacing 40 cm x 20 cm and 45 cm x 20 cm had significantly higher plant height and leaf area index as compared to 40 cm x 25 cm and 45 cm x 25 cm at 45 DAS and at harvest. Spacing had non-significant effect on days taken to 50 per cent silking and baby corn initiation. Wider spacing of 45 cm x 25 cm had significantly more number of cobs per plant, weight of cob and length of cob with as well as without husk and baby corn girth, while all of them were found to be at their lowest with closer spacing of 40 cm x 20 cm. However, yield of cob with husk, without husk and fodder yield was found to be the higher under spacing 45 cm x 20 cm i.e. 89.93 q/ha, 18.65 q/ha and 289.08 q/ha respectively. Cob yield with husk obtained under 45 cm x 20 cm spacing increased by 4.10 per cent, 5.58 per cent and 8.64 per cent over other spacing viz., 45 cm x 25 cm, 40 cm x 25 cm and 40 cm x 20 cm respectively. Total N, P and K uptake was also found to be higher under 45 cm x 20 cm spacing than rest of the spacing treatments. Spacing had non-significant effect on available N, P2O5 and K2O (kg/ha) status of soil after harvest. The different nutrient management practices showed significant influence on growth parameters and all yield attributing characters of baby corn. Better results were obtained with the integrated nutrient management practices over the application of chemical fertilizers alone. Among various proportions of fertilizer and vermicompost, application of 75% of N of I1 + 25% N replaced by VC recorded the highest values for plant height and leaf area index. Similar trend of results were observed in yield attributing characters viz., number of cobs per plant, weight of cob and length of cob with as well as without husk and girth of baby corn. 75% of N of I1 + 25% N replaced by VC resulted into production of maximum cob yield with husk (90.62 q/ha), cob yield without husk (19.30 q/ha) and green fodder yield (294.15 q/ha). Higher uptake of total N, P and K at harvest was also reported from this treatment. However, nutrient status of soil after harvest of the baby corn was found higher under treatment 50% of N of I1 + 50% N replaced by VC. In terms of economics, higher gross return ( 1,63,803/ha), net return ( 1,32,422/ha) and benefit-cost ratio (4.21) was recorded from 45 cm x 20 cm spacing. Among different nutrient management practices 75% of N of I1 + 25% N replaced by VC recorded the highest gross return ( 1,65,345) and net return ( 1,33,954). However, the highest benefit-cost ratio (4.67) was recorded from treatment 120-60-60 N-P2O5-K2O (kg/ha) followed by 75% of N of I1 + 25% N replaced by VC (4.26).