Vol. 11, Issue 6 (2022)

Author(s):
Rupali Kanwar, Paramjeet Singh, GP Banjara and N Pandey

Abstract:
In order to find out the effect of hydrogel application and foliar nutrients spray on chickpea an experiment entitled “Effect of hydrogel application and foliar spray of nutrients on yield and yield attributes of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under limited irrigation supply” was conducted during rabi season of 2020-21. The experiment was conducted at Research cum Instructional farm IGKV Raipur. The treatments comprised of two levels of hydrogel application (0 kg ha^-1 hydrogel; 5 kg ha^-1 hydrogel) and six levels of foliar nutrients spray (F₁- water spray, F₂- urea 2%, F₃- thiourea 500 ppm, F₄- salicylic acid 100 ppm, F₅- NPK(19:19:19:), F₆- DAP 2%). The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications having hydrogel application as main plot and foliar nutrients spray as sub plot treatment. The region has sub humid to semi-arid climate. The chickpea variety Indira chana-1 was taken as test crop and sown on November 30^th, 2020 and harvested on March 25^th, 2021. The seed rate of 80 kg ha^-1 treated with rhizobium culture was used for the sowing. A basal application of 20:50:20 kg ha^-1 N: P₂O₅: K₂O was given to the crop as a basal application. One irrigation was applied just after sowing of the crop. The 5 kg ha^-1 hydrogel as per treatment was drill in line before seeding of chickpea seeds. The foliar nutrient as per treatment was sprayed at flower initiation stage (50 DAS) and pod development stage (72 DAS). Among hydrogel application treatments, application of 5 kg ha^-1 hydrogel produced the highest seed (1746 kg ha^-1) and stover yield (2701 kg ha^-1). The maximum seed yield was recorded under foliar nutrient spray of F₂- urea 2%, which was comparable with the foliar nutrients spray of F₆- DAP 2% and F₃- thiourea 500 ppm. The remaining treatments i.e. F₁- water spray, F₄- Salicylic acid, F₅- NPK (19: 19: 19) 0.5% found to be significantly inferior than that of F₂- urea 2% for seed and stover yield.