Vol. 11, Issue 4 (2022)

Author(s):
Arpita Meena, RM Solanki, PM Parmar and Sonali Chaudhari

Abstract:
A field experiment was carried out during rabi season of 2017-18 on medium black soil at Instructional Farm, Department of Agronomy, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh (Gujarat) to study the effect of spacing and nitrogen levels on growth and yield of fodder maize. Twelve treatment combinations consisted of three spacing viz., S₁:20cm, S₂:30cm and S₃:40cm; and four levels of nitrogen viz., N₁:00 kg N ha^-1, N₂:80 kg N ha^-1, N₃: 100 kg N ha^-1 and N₄: 120 kg N ha^-1 were tested under split plot design with four replications. The experimental results revealed that sowing of fodder maize at wider row spacing of 40 cm recorded significantly higher values of number of leaves plant^-1, number of internodes plant^-1, stem thickness and length of internodes. Whereas, narrow row spacing of 20 cm produced higher green and dry fodder yields along with higher gross and net returns. Almost all the growth and yield attributes, green and dry fodder yields were found significantly higher when crop was fertilized with 120 kg N ha^-1 followed by 100 kg N ha^-1. Maximum gross and net return as well as B:C ratio were observed under 120 kg N ha^-1.