Augmentation of growth and seed yield in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) through identifying optimum level of phosphorus application and weed management

Abstract

Chickpea is one of the most important pulse crop in the world. For higher yield of chickpea, it is essential to apply a suitable dose of manure and fertilizer particularly phosphorus nutrition to crop. Very meager data is available about ideal dose of phosphorus application and weed management for Dehradun region of Uttarakhand. Therefore, to investigate the effect of weeding and phosphorous levels on growth and yield of chickpea seed, a field experiment was conducted during Rabi season of 2019–20 at Agriculture Research Centre, School of Agriculture Sciences, Shri Guru Ram Rai University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design using chickpea cv. PG-186 with three replications. Treatments were comprised of five levels of phosphorus viz. 0, 15, 30, 45 and 60 kg/ha with weeding and control (without weeding). Observations on various growth and yield attributes were recorded at different growth stages. Based on experimental findings, maximum plant height (43 cm), average number of branches/plant (4.80), number of leaves/plant (130.33), number of pods/plant (47.46), weight of plant (44.26 g), seed yield/hectare (13.53 q) and 1000 seeds weight (138.26 g) were recorded with application of 45 kg P/ha with continuous weeding. On the basis of these results, it can be concluded that the phosphorus application of 45 kg P/ha with proper and timely weeding is best among all other treatments for higher growth and seed yield of chickpea in Doon valley of Uttarakhand.