EFFECT OF SULPHUR AND DIFFERENT IRRIGATION REGIMES ON GROUNDNUT

Abstract

The experiment was conducted at research field and laboratory in the Department of Crop Physiology and Ecology, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur, during the period of December 2016 to May 2017 to study the effects of sulphur and irrigation level on the growth and yield of groundnut. The experiment was laid out in a split plot design with three replications. The experiment comprised of two sets of factors such as A: Three sulphur doses such as, S1= 20 kg sulphur per hectare, S2 = 30 kg sulphur per hectare and S3 = 40 kg sulphur per hectare; B: three irrigation levels like, I1 (30 mm irrigation), I2= (50 mm irrigation) and I3 (70 mm irrigation) in total life span of the crop. Result revealed that S2 (30 kg/ha S) took highest days to attain germination, flowering, anthesis and pegging while the S1 (20 kg/ha S) took lowest days for the above characters. Plant height, number of leaves per plant, number of branch per plant, plant height, root length, branch number, number of nodules, dry weight per plant, total chlorophyll content and moisture retention capacity, relative leaf water content, number of mature pod per plant at harvest, number of immature pod per plant, total number of pod per plant, pod weight per plant at harvest, pod weight per plot and biological weight per plot were highest in S2 (30 kg/ha S) while the above characters were lowest in S1 (20 kg/ha S). Crop growing with I3 irrigation took highest days to attain germination, flowering, anthesis and pegging while I1 took lowest days for the above characters. Plant height, number of leaves per plant, number of branch per plant, plant height, root length, branch number per plant at harvest, number of nodules per plant at harvest, dry weight per plant, total chlorophyll content, moisture retention capacity, relative leaf water content, yield attributes and yield were highest in I3 irrigation while the above characters were lowest in I1 irrigation. Most of the above parameters were significantly influenced by the interaction of sulphur and irrigation in the present study. Most of the characteristics showed their superiority in S2I3 while the most of the characteristics were lowest in S1I1. Highest pod yield was obtained from the interaction of S2I2. Finally, it can be concluded that combination of S2 (30 kg/ha S) with I3 (70 mm irrigation) was the best treatment for groundnut production.