Effect of different levels of phosphorus and sulphur on growth and yield of cowpea (Vigna sinensis L.)
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Date
2013-10-31
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Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani
Abstract
The experiment entitled “Effect of different levels of phosphorus and
sulphur on growth and yield of cowpea (Vigna sinensis L,)” was conducted at the
Instructional Cum Research Farm, Department of Horticulture, College of
Agriculture, Latur during kharif season 2012-13. The experiment framed was
intended to study the effect of different levels of phosphorus and sulphur on growth
and yield of cowpea for high yield and better quality pods. The experiment was laid
out in Factorial Randomized Block Design (FRBD) with three levels each of
phosphorus and sulphur consisting nine treatment combinations replicated thrice. The
treatment comprising of levels of phosphorus viz. Pi: 40 kg P2O5 ha'1, P2: 50 kg P2O5
ha'1 and P3: 50 kg P2O5 ha'1 and three levels of sulphur viz. So: 0 kg S ha'1. Si: 20 kg
S ha'1 and S3: 40 kg S ha'1. The doses of fertilizer nitrogen and potash each at 50 kg
haf1 was applied as recommended dose. The nitrogen was applied through urea and
potash was applied through MOP as basal dose whereas phosphorus and sulphur was
applied as per treatments through Di-ammonium phosphate and gypsum respectively
just before sowing of the crop. The sowing of crop was done by dibbling on 1st July
2012 at 60 x 30 cm spacing in the plots of 4.2 m x 3 m size.
CONTE)
The observation on emergence count and biometric observations like
plant height, number of branches, number of functional leaves, leaf area were
recorded on five randomly selected plants from each plot at various crop growth
stages. The observations on reproductive growth parameters like number of days
required to initiation of flowering, number of days to first picking, number of
pickings and crop duration were recorded. The picking of green pods was done at
horticultural maturity stage. The observations on yield contributing characters like
number of clusters plant"1, number of pods cluster"1, yield plant"1 and yield plot"1 were
recorded as each picking. The quality parameters like length of pod, number of seeds
pod"1 and protein content were also estimated. The economics of the crop was also
worked out after final harvest. The data was analysed statistically.
The results of the present investigation indicated that the application of
phosphorus @ 60 kg P2O5 ha"1 produced better growth and higher yield with high B:C
ratio (3.6) of cowpea crop and it was found to be at par with the application of 50 kg
P2O5 ha"1. Hence, it is desirable to apply phosphorus at 50 kg P2O5 ha"1 as per
recommendation and there is no need to further increase or reduce the dose of
phosphorus for cowpea. The most of growth, yield as well as economic characters
were found higher with the application of 40 kg S ha"1 but they were at par with the
application of 20 kg S ha"1. Therefore, the application of sulphur @ 20 kg ha"1 will be
desirable. The results of the present study clearly showed the need of application of
sulphur along with recommended dose of NPK for getting higher yield and more
monetary returns of cowpea as a vegetable.
Hence, in nutshell, it can be concluded that, for getting better growth
and superior quality of cowpea pods with more economic returns, the crop should be
fertilized with recommended dose of NPK each @ 50 kg ha"1 along with 20 kg S ha"1.
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