Vol. 11, Issue 12 (2022)

Author(s):
Lingayat NR, Takankhar VG, Chavan NS, Kadam DM and Pawar BV

Abstract:
A field experiment entitled “Effect of silicon and nitrogen levels on soil nutrient dynamics, yield and quality of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) under Inceptisol” was conducted during the Rabi season 2019-20, at Soil Science and Agriculture Chemistry, Departmental Research Farm, College of Agriculture, Latur. The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design with two factors viz., four levels of Silicon (S0 - control, S0.25 - silicon @ 0.25% foliar spray, S0.5 - silicon @ 0.5% foliar spray and S1.0 - silicon @ 1% foliar spray) and four levels of nitrogen (N0 - control, N40 - nitrogen @ 40 kg ha^-1, N80-nitrogen @ 80 kg ha^-1 and N120 - nitrogen @ 120 kg ha^-1) with three replications and SPV-2407 as test crop. Growth parameters viz. plant height; number of functional leaves, number of internodes, stem girth, length of ear head and final plant count of sorghum at different stages were increased significantly with application of silicon @ 1% foliar spray in combination with soil application of nitrogen @ 120 kg ha^-1 over rest of the treatments. Thus, it can be concluded that the combined application of silicon and nitrogen was found to be superior in increasing growth parameters of sorghum over separate application of silicon and nitrogen.