Response of cabbage (Brassica oleracia var. capitata) to different sources and levels of sulphur under temperate conditions
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Date
2015
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Abstract
Sulphur is increasing and is recognized as the fourth important macro nutrient after nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Sulphur is best known for its role in the synthesis of proteins, oils, vitamins and is associated with the production of superior nutritional and market quality. It is an essential component in synthesis of amino acids required to manufacture proteins. It is an important constituent of chlorophyll, thus helps in increasing the photosynthetic activity, which is a good indication of physiologically efficient plants. Deficiency of sulphur in soil effect the utilization of nitrogen since sulphur has a synergistic effect on utilization of nitrogen. Optimum use of fertilizers containing sulphur improves utilization of nutrients, especially nitrogen. Keeping in view the importance of sulphur in plant growth development and reproduction the present investigation entitled, “Response of cabbage (Brassica oleracia var. capitata) to different sources and levels of sulphur under temperate conditions” was carried out at Vegetable Experimental Farm, Division of Vegetable Science during 2012-13 and 2013-14 in order to work out the optimum level and source of sulphur for obtaining higher yield, quality and seed yield in cabbage. The experiment was laid in a randomized block design with three replications at a spacing of 60 cm x 45 cm. Three sources of sulphur i.e., Gypsum, Elemental sulphur and Potassium Sulphate with three levels i.e., 40, 70 and 100 kg S ha-1 for each source were tried in the experiment. The observations were recorded on growth, yield, quality and seed yield parameters from 10 randomly selected plants of each treatment. Among various treatments Potassium sulphate at level at 70 kg S ha-1 proved significantly better with respect to improvement of growth parameters like plant height (26.5 cm and 25.5 cm),plant spread (47.8 cm2 and 47.3 cm2), number of non wrapper leaves (12.6 and 12), maturity (79 and 83.1 days) and core length (7.9 cm and 9.1 cm). Potassium sulphate at level at 70 kg S ha-1 proved significantly better with respect to improvement of quality parameters viz., dry matter (9.6 g and 9.0 g) and head compactness (0.032 and 0.026). Potassium sulphate at level at 70 kg S ha-1 proved significantly better with respect to nutrient content of cabbage viz., nitrogen (3.3% and 2.9%), potassium (2.15% and 2.1%) and sulphur (0.41% and 0.41%). Maximum chlorophyll content (1.15 mg/g), vitamin C (59.1 mg/100g) in the cabbage head was recorded with level 70 kg S ha-1 with no effect of sources. Potassium sulphate at 100 kg S ha-1 recorded maximum plant weight (2.5 kg and 2.4 kg), head length (20.7 cm and 20.7cm), head diameter (18.8 cm and 17.8 cm), moreover, maximum head yield plot-1 (30.8 kg and 28 kg) and head yield ha-1 (408.4 q and 371.9 q) was recorded with potassium sulphate at 100 kg S ha-1, but was statistically at par with potassium sulphate at 70 kg S ha-1. Seed yield parameters viz., days to first flowering (246 and 250.8), days to 75% (328.1 and 334.1) seed harvest, number of branches per plant (35 and 31.7), number of siliqua per plant (709.5 and 671.6), number of seeds per siliqua,1000 seed weight (3.87 g and 3.85 g), germination % (98.1 and 95.4), seed yield per plant (12.9 g and 11.9 g), and seed yield per hectare(4.8 q and 4.4 q), oil content % (29.7and26.5) and quality parameter total soluble solids (7.6oBrix and 7.1oBrix) also exhibited higher values with potassium sulphate at level 100 kg S ha-1. Significantly maximum residual build up of available nitrogen (318.3 kg ha-1 ), phosphorous (24.5 kg ha-1) and potassium (168.6 kg ha-1) in soil was found with sulphur application at 100 kg S ha-1, whereas sulphur sources did not effect residual build up of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Maximum residual available sulphur in soil was observed with Elemental sulphur at 100 kg S ha-1 (28.4 kg ha-1 and 25.7 kg ha-1). Optimum and maximum doses of sulphur were 97.6 and 107.3 kg S ha-1 with corresponding cabbage head yields of 381 and 382.2 q ha-1 respectively. Optimum and maximum doses of sulphur were 97.5 and 107 kg S ha-1 with corresponding cabbage seed yields of 4.3 and 4.5 q ha-1 respectively. Optimum dose of sulphur registered net returns of 404251.3 ha-1 and of 271457.3 ha-1 with B:C ratio of 3.4 and 2.5 for cabbage head and seed production respectively. Economic studies indicated that fertilizer source Potassium Sulphate @ 70 kg S ha-1 gave maximum net returns of 485925.8 ha-1 and 3210128.0 ha-1 with B:C ratio of 4.1 and 3.0 for cabbage head and seed production respectively.