Enhancing water use efficiency of Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L.) under deficit and adequate irrigation scheduling with hydrogel
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Date
2014-08
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
A field experiment was conducted during the rabi season of 2013-14 at N. E. Borlaug Crop Research Centre of G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar (290 N, 79029E and at an altitude of 243.83 m) to study the effect of irrigation scheduling and hydrogel levels on the growth, yield attributes, yield, quality, WUE and economics of Indian mustard. The experiment consisting of 12 treatments, having four levels of irrigation scheduling (No irrigation, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 IW/CPE ratios) in main plots at 6 cm of depth and three levels of hydrogel (No hydrogel, 2.5 kg and 5.0 kg hydrogel/ha) in sub plots, were studied in split plot design (SPD) with three replication. The soil of the experimental site was silty clay loam with pH 7.28, organic carbon 0.77%; and 418, 24 and 227 kg/ha of N, P2O5 and K2O, respectively.
Plant height, number of branches (Primary, secondary and the total), dry matter accumulation, 50 per cent flowering and 80 per cent maturity, yield attributes, seed yield, straw yield, biological yield, harvest index, oil yield and economics were influenced significantly with the application of irrigation. The differences in the various treatments on irrigation scheduling based on IW/CPE ratio were not found significant as those treatments stood out to be the same practically owing to sufficient rainfall received in the crop growth period, which did not let any irrigation further required after the one applied at 30 days stage. Hydrogel treatments affected various parameters viz. Plant height, number of branches, dry matter accumulation, 50 per cent flowering, 80 per cent maturity, number of siliquae per plant, number of seeds per siliqua, length of siliqua, 1000 seed weight, seed yield, straw yield, biological harvest index, protein content in seeds and protein yield, oil yield where value of these parameters were significantly higher with application application hydrogel at 5 kg/ha. The net returns remained higher with application of 5.0 kg of hydrogel/ha, although the B:C ratio was more with no application of hydrogel. The interaction between irrigation scheduling and hydrogel application was not found significant
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