Vol. 10, Issue 3 (2021)

Author(s):
Shalini Khajuria, AK Mondal, A Samanta, Vikas Sharma, Vivak M Arya and Vishal Raina

Abstract:
Boron in soils plays an important role in determining its availability to growing plants. Information as regards to the B fraction in the soils of Jammu and Kashmir is very limited. Therefore, field experiment were conducted for two years (2015-16 and 2016-17) with cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis L) as a test crop on sandy clay loam with treatment combination of four levels of boron as borax @ 0, 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 kg ha^-1, mulching @ 6 t paddy straw mulch ha^-1 and no mulch along with 20% (W₁) and 30% (W₂) plant available water moisture regimes constituting 16 treatment combinations replicated thrice in Factorial RBD. Borax @5.0 improved the B uptake by 77.2% and 21.3% over the 0 and 2.5 during 2015-16 and 76.5% and same values were 21.2% over the 0 and 2.5 during 2016-17 respectively. Irrespective of B levels, the uptake of B with 6 t paddy straw mulch ha^-1 registering 5.83% and 5.66% enhancement during 2015-16 and 2016-17, respectively. Irrespective of B levels, the B uptake increased insignificantly with 20% reduction of PAW i.e., W₁ (36.18 g ha^-1) over 30% reduction of PAW i.e., W₂ (35.84 g ha^-1) registering 0.94% enhancement during 2015-16. Similarly, B uptake was recorded increased insignificantly with W₁ (36.26 g ha^-1) over W₂(35.95 g ha^-1) registering 0.86% enhancement during 2016-17.