Effect of seedling age and different levels of fertilizer on growth and yield of transplanted finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.)

Abstract

The experiment was carried out for the evaluation of seedling age and different levels of fertilizer on growth and yield of transplanted finger millet Co (Ra) 15during rabi season of 2019-2020 at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Killikulam. The experiment was laid in split plot design and replicated thrice. The main plot consists of different age of seedlings viz., 15, 18 and 21 days old seedlings raised with nutrient media. Simultaneously 17 days old seedlings also raised as conventional method. In subplot different levels of recommended fertilizer dose viz., 75, 100 and 125% were imposed. During the cropping, various plant growth characters such as plant height and drymatter production were recorded at harvest stage and number of tillers hill-1 was recorded at 60 DAT. The yield characters like number of productive tillers, number of earheads m-2, number of filled grains earhead-1, grain and straw yield were also recorded. The experimental result shows that planting 15 days old seedlings from nutrient media along with application of 125% RDF recorded significantly higher plant height (108.5 cm), number of tillers hill-1 (8.9), drymatter production (9524 kg ha-1), number of productive tillers hill-1 (6.9), number of earheads m-2 (153), number of filled grains earhead-1 (1696), grain (3602 kg ha-1) and straw yield (6484 kg ha-1) and it was on par with15 days old seedlings from nutrient media along with 100% RDF.