Drip irrigation, foliar nutrition of micronutrients and growth regulatorsin chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to study the “effect of irrigation levels, micronutrients and growth regulatorson chickpea under drip irrigation in medium black soil at instructional Farm, College of Agriculture, Vijayapur during Kharif2018. The experiment was laid out under strip-split plot design with three replications. There were 20 treatment combinationscomprising of five irrigation levels assited in main plots and four sub plot treatments having foliar application of micronutrientsand growth regulators. The results of the study showed that, scheduling of irrigation at 60 mm Ep recorded significantlyhigher number of pods (36.99), pod weight (10.61 g ) and seed weight (9.5 g) per plant, grain yield (1794 kg ha-1), net returns( 69,169 ha-1) and benefit cost ratio (3.51) as compared to other irrigation schedules. Among different growth regulatorsand micronutrients, foliar application of NAA (40ppm) + Salicylic acid (200 ppm) + boron (0.05 %) + ZnSO4, (0.5 %) and19:19:19 NPK at 1.5 per cent recorded significantly higher number of pods (39.76), pod weight (10.53g) seed weight(9.12 g), grain yield (1706 kg ha-1), net return ( 49,338 ha-1) and benefit cost ratio (2.80) than other growth regulators.Among the interaction effects, scheduling of irrigation at 60 mm Ep along with foliar spray of NAA (40 ppm) + Salicylicacid (200 ppm) + boron (0.05 %) + ZnSO4 (0.5 %) and 19:19:19 NPK at 1.5 per cent recorded significantly higher numberof pods (46.57), pod weight (13.01g) and seed weight (12.89 g) per plant, grain yield (2151 kg ha-1), net returns ( 69,169 ha-1) and benefit cost ratio (3.51). Irrigation at 60 mm Ep with application of micronutrients B and Zn and growthregulators NAA and Salicylic acid produced significantly higher seed yield and net profits in Nortern dry zone of Karnataka.