Sulphur and Boron Nutrition in Niger (Guizotia abyssinica Cass.)
Loading...
Date
2017-08
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Agricultural Science, Dharwad
Abstract
A field experiment was conducted during kharif 2016 at the Main Agricultural Research Station, Dharwad to study the effect of sulphur and boron nutrition in niger. The experiment was laid out in spilt plot with three replications. Main treatments consisted of sulphur applications @ 0, 10 and 20 kg ha-1 alone and sulphur @ 10 and 20 kg ha-1 with sulphur oxidizing biofertilizer (Thiobacillus thiooxidans). Three subplot treatments foliar application of solubor (0.2 %) at branching, branching and flowering along with control were tried.
Application of 20 kg sulphur ha-1 with sulphur oxidizing biofertilizer recorded higher seed yield of niger (628 kg ha-1). Niger seed yield was increased by foliar spray of solubor at branching and flowering (597 kg ha-1) over no foliar spray (510 kg ha-1) and the increase was by 17 per cent. Application of 20 kg sulphur ha-1 with sulphur oxidizing biofertilizer along with foliar spray of solubor (0.2 %) at branching and flowering recorded higher seed yield (683 kg ha-1) and it was on par with 10 kg sulphur ha-1 with sulphur oxidizing biofertilizer along with foliar spray of boron at branching (630 kg ha-1). Better growth parameters such as leaf area, leaf area index and total dry matter and yield attributes like number of capitulum per plant, seed yield per plant and 1000 seed weight of niger contributed for higher yield. Increased oil content (40.08 %) and oil yield (273.02 kg ha-1) were also observed in these treatments. This also resulted in higher net returns of niger (₹ 28,326 ha-1) with B: C ratio of 2.66. However, it was on par with 10 kg sulphur ha-1 with sulphur oxidizing biofertilizer along with foliar spray at branching resulted in net returns of ₹ 26,250 ha-1 with B: C ratio (2.68).