Vol. 12, Issue 12 (2023)

Author(s):
Sabne KS, Karanjikar PN, Survase RT, Pandit SG and Dudde PS

Abstract:
The field experiment was carried out at the Experimental Farm Agronomy Section, College of Agriculture, Latur, during the 2020–2021 kharif season, to analyse the effect of different mulches on growth, yield and quality of black gram under rainfed condition. The experimental plot's soil had a clay texture and was somewhat alkaline (pH 7.8). The design of the experiment was a Randomised Block Design. There were three replications of the seven treatments. The treatments were T₁: Control, T₂: Straw mulch @ 5 t/ha, T₃: Spreading of FYM @ 5 t/ha, T₄: Hand weeding cum live mulch, T₅: Spreading of glyricidia/leucaena tree leaves/lopping, T₆: Soil mulch by 1 hoeing, T₇: Soil mulch by 2 hoeing. The gross and net plot size of each experimental unit was 5.40 m x 4.50 m and 4.5 m x 3.9 m, respectively. The result showed that the application of hand weeding cum live mulch (T₄) gave significantly higher seed yield, straw yield, biological yield, gross return, net return and B: C ratio. Hand weeding cum live mulch being (T₄) statistically at par with straw mulch (T₂) and farm yard manure (T₃) of black gram as compared to no mulch.