Vol. 11, Special Issue 1 (2022)

Author(s):
Dr. GP Banjara and Pallavi Porte

Abstract:
A field experiment was conducted at Instructional Cum Research Farm of IGKV, Raipur (Chhattisgarh) during Rabi season in 2018-19 and 2019-20 to study the “Effect of hydrogel and foliar nutrition sprays on yield attributes, seed and stover yield of chickpea”. The soil was clayey (Vertisols) in texture, locally known as “Kanhar” which was low, medium and high in available N, P₂O₅ and K₂O, respectively. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with 3 replications and comprised of 2 hydrogel levels i.e. 0 kg/ha & 5.0 kg/ha were kept in main plots and 5 levels of foliar nutrition i.e. water spray (control), urea 2%, thiourea 500 ppm, salicylic acid 100 ppm & NPK (19:19:19) @ 0.5% in sub plots. Hydrogel was putted 4-5 cm deep into the soil before chickpea sowing and subsequently foliar nutrition were sprayed at critical stages i.e. flower initiation and pod development. Result revealed that application of hydrogel 5.0 kg/ha before sowing recorded significantly higher pods/plant (38.42 and 39.24), seeds/pod (1.57 and 1.61), 100 seed weight (25.36 and 25.53 g), seed yield (1680.05 and 1716.91 kg/ha) during both the years and on mean basis respectively. Foliar application of urea 2% at flower initiation & pod development stages recorded significantly higher pods/plant (39.94 and 40.73), seeds/pod (1.67 and 1.63), 100 seed weight (26.00 and 26.18 g), seed yield (1714.10 and 1756.36 kg/ha) during both the years and on mean basis which was at par with thiourea 500 ppm over water spray and salicylic acid 100 ppm, respectively.