Effect of foliar nutrition on productivity of groundnut crop

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at Agricultural Research Station, Kawadimatti, Karnataka during rabi/summer 2013 and 2014 to study the effect of foliar nutrition on productivity of Groundnut crop. There are nine treatments which were sprayed with different foliar nutrients at 50% flowering and 15 days after the first spray viz, 2% DAP, 2%Urea, 3% Panchagavya, 10% vermiwash, 1% 19:19:19, 1% Multi-nutrient spray, 10% cow urine, 3% Biomax spray, 2% K2O these nine treatments were supplied with recommended dose of fertilizers, and one treatment was supplied only with RDF without the supplementation of foliar nutrition which was consider as check. Results of the experiment revealed that among the treatments foliar nutrition with 1% 19:19:19 supplied treatment recorded significantly higher pod yield (2874, 2521 and and 2698 kgs/ha) which was on par with treatment receiving 3% Biomax spray, 1% multi-nutrient spray and 10% cow urine spray. The higher pod yield in these treatments might be due to significantly higher pod weight and test weight in these treatments. Significantly lower pod yield was recorded in treatment with 2% DAP which may be owing to its scorching effect on the groundnut crop. The net return and B: C ratio was significantly higher in treatment with 1% 19:19:19 (57514, 73757 and 65636, 2.82, 3.30 and 3.06 respectively) and 3% Biomax spray (57030, 61929 and 59480 and 2.80, 2.92 and 2.86 respectively). In general the treatments with foliar nutrition enhanced the yield and return of groundnut crop except the treatment with 2% DAP which adversely affected both growth and yield of groundnut contributing significantly lower yield and economics over check (treatment with only RDF)