Vol. 12, Issue 11 (2023)

Author(s):
Manisha, RK Narolia, Anil Kumar Yadav and Ritesh Kumar

Abstract:
Agriculture is the backbone of India. It is very important for the crops to meet the food requirements of the growing world population. The experiments were conducted at Instructional Farm, College of Agriculture, Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan Agricultural University, Bikaner, to study the effect of irrigation and nitrogen levels on the growth, and yield of cauliflower in the arid region of Rajasthan during two consecutive rabi seasons in 2021–22 and 2022–23. Experiments were laid out in a split-plot design with three replications. Irrigation levels were applied as I₁ (0.60 PE, I₂ (0.80 PE), I₃ (1.00 PE), and I₄(1.20 PE) and Nitrogen levels were applied as N1 (control), N2 (60), N3 (90), N4 (120), and N5 (150). Results showed that different irrigation and nitrogen levels had a significant impact on the growth and yield of cauliflower. The irrigation level at 1.20 PE gave the highest growth and yield attributes, i.e., plant height (47.46 cm) and number of leaves plant^-1(13.27), weight of leaves (428.64 gm) and plant spread (3279 cm²), days to curd initiation (74.40) and maturity (91.5), curd diameter (44.29 cm²), average weight of curd (571.65 g plant^-1), curd yield (307.08 q ha^-1), biological yield (587.53 q ha^-1), and harvest index (52.91%), which were more than the irrigation levels of 0.60 PE and 0.80 PE, but all these attributes were statistically at par with the 1.00 PE irrigation level. Among the different levels of nitrogen, all growth parameters,viz.,i.e., plant height (47.16 cm) and number of leaves plant^-1(13.36), weight of leaves (428.64 gm) and plant spread (3279 cm²), days to curd maturity (81.5), curd diameter (44.29 cm²), average weight of curd (571.65 g plant^-1), curd yield (307.08 q ha^-1), and biological yield (587.53 q ha^-1),were maximum observed with 150 kg N ha^-1 as compared to other levels of nitrogen, but statistically remained at par with 120 kg N ha^-1. However, other yieldparameters like days to curd initiation (75.9), and harvest index (55.01%) were recorded higher with no nitrogen application (control).