Effect of clay mixing, irrigation and sulphur on growth and yield of fenugreek on loamy sand soil (Trigonella foenum- graecum L.)

Abstract

A field experiment on effect of clay mixing, irrigation and sulphur on growth and yield of fenugreek ( Trigonella foenum- graecum L.) on loamy sand soil, was conducted at S.K.N. College of Agriculture, Jobner (Rajasthan) during Rabi seasons 2006-07 and 2007-08. The experiment consisted of 36 treatment combinations of 3 levels of clay mixing (0, 1 and 2 %), 3 levels of irrigation [4 application of irrigation at lateral bud initiation (LBI) + flower initiation (FI)+ pod initiation (PI) + grain development (GD), 6 application of irrigation at LBI + PI and 8 irrigations applied at all the phenological stages of crop growth (LBI + branching + FI + full flowering + PI + pod enlargement and grain formation + GD + ripening] as main plot treatments and 4 levels of sulphur (0, 20, 40 and 60 kg S/ha through gypsum) as sub plot treatments was laid out in split plot design with three replications. The results indicated that application of clay @ 2 per cent gave significantly higher growth, yield attributes and yield and remained at par with application of clay @ 1 per cent in both the year as well pooled mean over control. The results further indicate that application of 8 irrigation resulted in significantly higher growth, yield attributes and yield and remained at par with the application of 6 irrigation in pods per plant and seeds per pods in both the years as well as pooled mean over the control. The application of sulphur @ 40 kg/ha gave significantly higher the growth, yield attributes and yield in pooled mean basis over rest of treatments.