Effect of Mulching & non-mulching and Irrigation on growth characters in Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

Abstract

An investigation was conducted in rabi season of 2013-14 at Genetics and Plant Breeding Research Farm of Narendra Deva University of Agriculture & Technology, Narendra Nagar (Kumarganj), Faizabad to compare mulching and non-mulching treatments with respect of growth characters of barley and to study the effect of irrigation on growth characters of barley crop. The experiment was laid out in Split Plot design (SPD) with 9 treatment combinations viz. Under irrigation treatments; I0: No irrigation, I1: One irrigation and I2: Two irrigations and under mulching treatments; M0: No mulching, M1: 4t/ha mulch materials & M2: 6t/ha mulch materials with three replications. Irrigations management Treatments affects significantly with Treatment I2 (Two irrigations) was found best over control treatment and being at par with I1 (One irrigation) in all aspects of growth parameters i.e. Plant height (86.0 cm), Number of shoots (393.66), Leaf area index (4.57) and Dry matter accumulation (696.50 g). Under Mulching management, Treatment M2 (6t/ha mulch materials) was found significantly superior with Plant height (85.33 cm), no. of shoots (386.33), dry matter accumulation (668.67 g) and leaf area index (4.54) as compared to other treatments.